Hot Chocolate and Cold Nights
by constellation way
Summary: moving across the world to live in a tiny town called Burgess wasn't exactly what Tara would ever have planned for; but with the cute kid next door, Jamie, and his friends, the place doesn't seem so bad. plus, they tell amazing stories. (Jack Frost does sound pretty cool.) she never expected that thoe stories could actually be true. maybe it would be a lot better if they weren't.
1. meeting jamie

**This is the beginning to a brand-new ROTG story. Yay! I know the OC thing has been done, like, a million times before, but, you know, I wanted to try it out for myself. I'm giving myself, like, a 101 commitments by posting up so many stories, but what can I do? Hahaha.**

**Anyway, hope you'll enjoy this! This chapter doesn't actually involve Jack or anything - it's more of an intro to the OC - hope you won't find it TOO boring. **

* * *

"We'll miss you, you know."

Tara had to swallow as she looked over at Jerelee standing in front of her, Jerelee and Belle and Lena and Hope and all her other friends just standing _there_. She thought she could feel tears prickling at the back of her eyes, and had to blink furiously. _No. Don't cry. You're not allowed to cry._

"You have to Skype us," said Alice, Sally next to her nodding furiously.

"You have no choice," Sally informed her. "I don't care. You have to Skype us."

Her voice sounded dry: "I'll try and come back and visit."

She knew, just as Alice and Sally and Jerelee knew, that it was highly unlikely. Her parents didn't have the money.

"But just imagine!" Lena said. "You're going to have so much fun!" Of course, that was Lena – always bright, always optimistic. "What's that place called again? The one you're moving to?"

"Burgess," Tara muttered. "Something like that."

"Take pictures," said Hope. "You've got your DSLR, right? No excuses. I want to see what everything there is like. _Real_ photos, not stupid landscapes or buildings."

They all knew what she meant when she said 'real photos'. Tara always had her camera with her, and she only ever took what she felt was real – photos with emotion, without posing or just plain old buildings or anything fake. She'd been the victim of plenty of enraged screaming many times before.

"I read somewhere that it snows more in Burgess than anywhere else," said Sally. Of course Sally would know that kind of detail. "You'd better take lots of pictures of the snow."

Tara smiled a bit, at that. Singapore wasn't exactly known for its snow. In fact, the only seasons they ever seemed to get was summer, except when the rainy season came. Most of her friends had never seen snow. "I will."

Jerelee asked: "Your parents didn't make you dye your hair back?"

Instinctively, Tara's hand went up to her hair. As a protest against her migration (to the freaking United States!), she'd gone and dyed her hair bright pink. Her parents had been furious, but after a low, angry discussion, much of which Tara hadn't been able to hear, they'd allowed her to keep her hair pink.

"No," she said. "Think my dad figured it's better than smoking or some shit."

She was going to miss them. She was going to miss all of them. She'd never been good with people, especially new people, but she'd grown up here, on this tiny little island, and these were her friends, her family that weren't her blood. And now it was likely she would almost never see them again.

_No crying_.

"TARA!"

She turned her head to the sound of the voice, and saw two boys running frantically through the crowd at the airport. Her eyes widened – she hadn't expected them to come, not really. She'd mentioned the day of her flight, but not her flight number, or the gate –

She caught sight of Jerelee's knowing smile, and Delia's grin. Of course Delia had had something to do with this. Delia wasn't the kind to express her emotions a lot, but she did have a knack of coming up with exactly what a person needed.

In a moment, KP and Luke had skidded to a halt in front of her.

The first thing Tara said was: "I thought you guys didn't talk to each other anymore."

They exchanged a look, and then KP grinned, awkwardly. "Well, I figured that my problems with him weren't as huge as you moving over to the other side of the world."

"I got you this," Luke added, hurriedly, bringing out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back – roses, a dozen different colours, and Tara's eyes widened.

"You mean, we did," KP corrected.

"Shut up. It was my idea."

"I'm still included."

"Anyway," Luke said, turning back to her, "they're all fake. I mean, I know you like fake flowers. Not real ones that'll die on you. So, um, yeah."

Tara, hands shaking slightly, took the bouquet. Already beside her, her hand luggage, which had been mostly empty, was now filled to the brim with all the gifts her friends had given her. She'd been hoping for gifts, that was true, and her friends being her friends had all brought her something – but she'd never expected something from the boys. "Thanks."

Luke smiled, brilliantly, and KP was back to his awkward grin.

"Just – take care of yourself, okay?" Luke said. "I heard it's going to be cold like crazy over there. Make sure, you know, you dress warmly and don't get too cold and fall sick and – "

"Dude," Alice said, "relax. Tara knows how to take care of herself."

"Yeah, right," scoffed KP, and he received a swift blow to his arm. "Thanks, man."

"Don't mention it."

"Tara?" It was her younger sister, Hayley, peering up at her from behind Belle, who was smiling at her and patting her head. She swallowed, catching sight of the flowers in her sister's head: "Mummy says we gotta go."

"Remember to keep warm, okay?" Luke said, one last time: "You don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose."

Tara smiled: "Since when do you know about Jack Frost?"

"I read," Luke said, indignantly.

"C'mon, one last hug," Sally demanded, and almost immediately Tara was swarmed by her friends, and she had to fight the urge not to cry one last time.

"I'll miss you all," she whispered, her voice hoarse, as they finally drew away, Hayley standing patiently, quietly.

And then Hayley took her hand, and led her on the first steps towards her new life, away from her friends, to a little town called Burgess on the other side of the world.

* * *

Jamie Bennett watched, curiously, at his new neighbours moving in. He hadn't seen anyone like them before.

First there was the dad – he was tall, and skinny, and didn't seem to feel the cold as he helped to move stuff into the house. He was dark-skinned, with curly dark hair flecked with grey, and though his face looked a little stern and fierce, Jamie thought he was actually a nice guy.

Then there was the mum. She was shorter, a little plump, and she was clearly freezing, shivering in the wintry air. Maybe she wasn't used to the weather in Burgess – after all, Jack always made it snow more here than anywhere else. She was much fairer, with brown hair and wide eyes behind frameless glasses.

A girl about Jamie's age, then. She was very pretty – Jamie felt his face turn hot – and with thick, tumbling black hair. Her eyes were very wide and with long lashes, and her skin was fair, and her face flushed.

Last of all was a tall girl, a teenager, with black and orange spectacles. She looked maybe seventeen? Jamie wasn't sure. The most striking thing about her was her bright pink hair, long and straight and reached all the way down past her waist. She had dark skin, just like her dad, but while his features were sharp, her features were a little plain.

Her plain features were only emphasised by the scowl on her face.

The way they talked, and called out to each other, was different from anything he'd ever heard before. Once, when the pink-haired girl slipped on some snow, she let out a string of words in a language he'd never heard before. He thought it might be Chinese.

He wondered if the younger girl, the one around his age, might believe in Jack Frost. Jack hadn't been around for a couple of days – said he'd had to go spread winter in some other places – and Jamie missed having him around.

The younger girl, anyway, looked much friendlier than her sister. She was looking around her in wonder, gazing at the snow, and laughing.

She really was very pretty.

* * *

Tara kicked at the ground as she followed Hayley, who had somehow found her way to the playground, park, whatever it was. She was exhausted, and all she really wanted to do was to set up her room and hang up her photos and figure out where she was going to put her stuff.

But then Hayley had asked if she could go out and explore (which really meant play), and of course Mum had said yes, but only if Tara followed. So here she was.

She scowled to herself.

Granted, she'd never seen snow before. It was, if she had to admit, a little magical. Her hand went to the DSLR that she'd slung around her shoulder, and then fell back. She'd wait, she decided, before taking any photos.

There were already a couple of kids there, building a snowman. One of them, a small boy with messy, unkempt brown hair, spotted Hayley immediately, and there was a small smile on his face as she caught sight of him too.

Tara's face softened. Of course the kid would smile.

"D'you want to help us build a snowman?" he asked Hayley.

Hayley glanced over at Tara, who shrugged her shoulders, like: _Do whatever you want, kid, as long as it's not something stupid._

Hayley turned back to the boy. "I don't know how," she admitted, as Tara dropped onto a swing set near them. "I've never seen snow before."

The boy's jaw dropped: "You've _never_ seen snow before?"

"Well, on TV."

"You've got to be kidding!" A girl had moved up next to the boy. "We have to fix this. Like, right now. We'll show you how to build a snowman!"

Hayley grinned, and almost immediately Tara felt an ache in her heart. Hayley had never been good with new people, much like Tara was (an annoying trait they'd inherited from their dad), and to have new kids be so nice to her – she probably felt on top of the world.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," the boy said, and he smiled at her, widely: "My name's Jamie."

"And I'm Pippa," the tall girl next to him said. "And this is Claude, and Caleb, and Monty, and Cupcake."

"I'm Hayley."

* * *

"Is that your sister?" Jamie asked.

Hayley looked up to see Tara, her pink hair standing out, her camera raised to her eye. "Yeah. That's Tara."

"She's got cool hair," said Pippa.

"She nearly got killed by our parents," Hayley said, remembering with a grin. "But yeah. It's cool."

In the past hour or so, they had discovered that Hayley was from Southeast Asia, from a tiny island-country called Singapore, and that she'd been in an all-girls' school all her life (which explained why she was just a little awkward around the guys, but she was fine with Pippa and Cupcake.). Her parents had moved the whole family here because their job had forced them to relocate here, and while Hayley already missed her friends, she was looking forward to making new ones and living in a brand new country on the other side of the world.

"Your sister doesn't look happy," Caleb said.

"She doesn't, usually," Hayley admitted. "She was so mad when she found out we were migrating. That's why she went and dyed her hair pink."

"She looks way too serious," observed Claude.

"She is. She doesn't know how to have any fun."

It was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was true.

At that sentence, the kids around her had exchanged looks. As if by some silent, mutual consent, they closed in around Hayley slightly.

"Hayley?" Jamie asked. "If I ask you something, will you think I'm crazy?"

"Hmm?"

Hayley couldn't explain why, but she already liked Jamie plenty. He was funny, and playful, and nice, and seemed the most comfortable out of all the other kids.

"Do you believe in stuff?"

"Believe in stuff?"

"Yeah, you know. Like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy, or the Sandman, or – "

Here a grin split over his face:

" – or Jack Frost?"


	2. marshmallow man

"I made friends today," Hayley announced that night, over dinner.

"Oh, you did?" Sarah smiled at her youngest daughter, and then her eyes immediately flickered over to Tara, who looked calmly back at her and nodded. While she was not exactly on the best terms with her elder daughter thanks to the teen's rebellious streak, she did trust Tara's judgement when it came to Hayley. She'd never admit it, but Tara did care for the eleven-year-old a lot.

"Yeah," said Hayley. "And one of them lives right next door! His name's Jamie. Can I go play with him tomorrow?"

"After you at least pack up half your room," Peter said, from where he sat, slurping down mushroom soup. "Okay?"

"Yes!" Hayley started gobbling down the food almost instantly: "I'll start right after dinner!"

"You do that, kid," said Tara.

"And what will you do?" Sarah asked her. Their relationship was a little strained – Tara and Sarah had never seen eye-to-eye on plenty of things; it was only thanks to Peter that Sarah hadn't blown up over Tara's pink hair – and had only gotten worse with the migration to the US.

Tara shrugged. "Finish up my room. Read a bit, maybe. And take more photos. I'm going to Skype Lee and Alice and Sally later tonight, too."

"You're not gonna go and try and make friends?"

Tara raised her eyebrows at her father. "Papa, I got my social skills from you. I think that explains a lot."

Peter chuckled.

* * *

"We've got new neighbours," Jamie said to Jack, that night, when the white-haired winter spirit finally came floating into the younger boy's room. "She's so cool!"

"Yeah?" Jack grinned – it was always good to see Jamie, see his face light up with excitement.

"Yeah." Jamie nodded vigorously. "There's this girl, she's eleven like me, too, and she's called Hayley, and she's great! She's _never _seen snow before, can you imagine? Jack, why doesn't it snow in Singapore?"

Jack blinked at him for a moment. Jamie really _was _excited. "Um. Singapore?" Yes, he remembered. A small country. A tiny island. "There are places I'm not allowed to spread snow. Something about the climate, and all that. I mean, I can visit, but I'm not allowed to really do anything. Singapore's one of those places. Too near the Equator for snow."

"Oh." Jamie's face fell – but then he brightened up again. "Well, anyway, she moved from there, and we taught her how to build a snowman! And we told her about you and the other Guardians, and I said that if she really believed, she could see you, too! And she'll be coming over tomorrow!"

"That's great! I'm gonna be around for the next couple of days."

"_Yes_! You'll love to meet her, I swear, she's amazing – "

Jack couldn't help the bemused smile that spread over his face.

"Oh, but she has an older sister, too," Jamie recalled. "She seems cool, but Hayley says she's really serious."

"Well, now, we can't have that."

"Yeah! I was thinking, she can't be _that_ serious, can she, because her hair's pink – "

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, she dyed her hair pink! Cool, right? Maybe we could have a snowball fight tomorrow! We could get her to play with us! Will you play with us, too?"

Jack grinned. "Well, if it can make a boring teenager be a little less boring – "

* * *

Jamie Bennett wasn't that bad of a kid.

Tara was curled up on the swing set outside the house, _Dracula_ in her hands – an old, battered copy she'd found long ago. He was telling Hayley some kind of story – she could see plenty of expressive hand gestures and laughs and wide eyes – and Hayley was drinking it all in.

It was good, she supposed, that Hayley made friends before school started.

* * *

Hayley's eyes widened when the white-haired boy finally materialised next to Jamie.

He'd been telling her about the defeat of Pitch Black, an incident that had happened just last year, and he was telling her about Jack being made into a Guardian. She'd thought it was a good story, a really good one, and then her nose suddenly went cold and she let out a sneeze and the next thing she knew, a white-haired boy was floating in the _air_, next to Jamie.

Jamie noticed where she was looking, and his grin grew wide: "You can see him!"

She nodded, numbly.

He was _there_, right there, in front of her. Someone who wasn't supposed to be real, but really did exist.

"You're Jack Frost," she finally managed to say.

He straightened up – still floating on air and gave her a little bow. "At your service."

"This is _so cool_!"

* * *

Tara didn't speak very often.

Jack saw her, definitely – a head with that sort of bright pink hair was hard to miss. She stayed mostly around the house, reading, or sometimes ventured to the park until they all left and she brought Hayley home.

One day, she brought out a camera. He was right next to Jamie and Hayley when the older girl went over to them.

"Hey," she said, and Jack was suddenly aware that her voice didn't _fit_ her at all. He'd expected a rough kind of voice, maybe a little hoarse (it fit the whole 'rebellious' thing, especially with the pink hair, and the fact that she wasn't exactly very petite; she wasn't scrawny, and she wasn't exactly slim, but she definitely had some muscles in her arms.). But her voice wasn't like that at all. "D'you kids mind if I take a couple of photos of y'all?"

Her voice, Jack thought, was airy. Kind of breathy. If the wind had a voice, it would be a voice like hers.

"Is it for Jerelee and Alice and Sally and Delia?" Hayley asked, immediately.

"Yeah. And Luke, and Hope and Belle and Lena and all that. They're demanding photos." Catching sight of Jamie's uncomfortable face, Tara added: "Don't worry. Just go and play. You won't really notice me."

"Go ahead, kiddo," said Jack, from where he was floating behind Jamie. "You could always get the photos from her afterwards! That'd be fun."

Jack smiled at her, a little awkwardly (he still didn't really know what to make of this quiet, pink-haired girl): "Why not?"

* * *

When Jamie knocked on the door, he was definitely not expecting Tara to open it.

She blinked at him, bleary-eyed, in an oversized T-shirt and jeans: "Kid?"

"Is Hayley in?"

He'd known Hayley for about a week, now; and every morning she'd come out and play with him, and the other kids, and Jack. But despite that, he didn't know Tara at all. She didn't seem to like kids very much, judging from how she always sat away from them while they played, tinkering with her camera. And she hardly ever smiled at them, though she did smile at Hayley a lot.

"Yeah, but she's clearing out her room," said Tara. "My dad said that she'd have to pack it up before going out to play anymore. She's been doing it for hours, though, so she should be done soon."

She gave him a critical look, before adding: "Come on in. Shut the door behind you."

Jamie exchanged a glance with Jack, who was floating next to him. Jack shrugged. He hadn't seen or heard much of the teenager – she seemed just like any other boring teenager he'd met, the kind that spent their nights doing all sorts of weird stuff and never wanting to mix with kids.

Although, he did like her voice. A _lot_.

Jamie followed Tara down the hallway, a little hesitantly, and went into the warm, bright kitchen.

Music was softly playing over speakers set up in the corner – Jamie thought he recognised Rascal Flatts – as Tara hummed, getting out a couple of cups and plates.

"I assume you like hot chocolate?" she asked, over her shoulder.

"I love hot chocolate!" he exclaimed, perking up at the thought, and, for the first time, he heard Tara let out a chuckle.

"It's a crime not to, I think," she said, as she added hot water to two cups and stirred it in. She sank into a seat opposite Jamie and slid the cup over to him: "Go on, have some. We've got plenty."

He sipped; and then, his eyes grew wide, and he looked up. "This is _amazing_!"

She grinned at him. "Thanks. Hay always did say I make fantastic hot chocolate."

She drank some of her own.

"How does it taste so good?"

"The secret is to hate the world around you and believe that hot chocolate is the answer to all your problems and can fix everything in this world," Tara said, automatically; catching sight of Jamie's shocked face, she let out a laugh. It was a nice laugh, a lot like her voice, kind of velvety. "I'm messing with you, kid. There isn't really a secret. Guess it's just the way I've made it since I was a kid."

"We have the same brand," said Jamie, "but it doesn't taste the same."

"'Course it doesn't. That's 'cause I'm not the one making it."

Jamie laughed.

"Hey, Hay told me you told her some really good story about Guardians, and the Boogeyman, or something?"

"Yeah."

"Think you could tell it to me?"

* * *

When Hayley came down, half an hour later, she found Jamie and Tara making a marshmallow man and attempting to sink him in hot chocolate. Jack was floating behind them, grinning bemusedly, raising his eyebrows at Hayley when she walked in.

"What are you guys _doing_?"

"I was showing Jamie how I once attempted to drown all the marshmallows Papa tried to force me to eat, once," said Tara.

"How can you not like marshmallows?" Jamie demanded. "They're amazing!"

"Nothing is right without marshmallows," Jack agreed; but of course, Tara didn't hear him.

"So you made a marshmallow man?" Hayley asked.

"They're cute," said Tara. "And they're easy to make, with a couple of toothpicks. Plus they don't melt on you like real snowmen – "

"Are you insulting our snowman? 'Cause you shouldn't insult our snowman."

"Bring it on, kid. You wanna insult my marshmallow man? Because we can take anything you've got."

Hayley had to blink in surprise. She hadn't seen Tara like this for a very, _very _long time. Her eyes flickered to Jack.

"I didn't do anything," he said. "I swear."

"Your marshmallow man is puny and small and weak," Jamie was saying to Tara. "Look, he's dissolving in hot chocolate!"

"Hey, your snowman melts in the _sun_!"

"While this is very fun and all," Jack said, dryly, "don't you guys have a snowball fight to get to?"

Tara, of course, was still focussed on the marshmallow man.

Jamie's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah! I nearly forgot! Come on, Hayley! Pippa and the others are gonna have a snowball fight! We gotta go!"

He turned to Tara: "Are you coming?"

"Me? In a snowball fight?" she scoffed. "No way, kid. Although I might come by and take some pictures."

Jamie shrugged: "Suit yourself."

He and Hayley were nearly out the door when Tara yelled, "Hey, kid!"

He looked at her expectantly, as she stuck her head around the door.

"You know that story you were telling me, earlier?" she said. "About the Easter Bunny and Guardians and all that?"

"Yeah?"

"I have a question," she said. "If the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy have to work every night all year round, and Jack Frost too, and Santa Claus works the whole year round on his toys for Christmas, what does the Easter Bunny do the whole year? I mean, he can't paint hard-boiled eggs the whole year, can he?"

It wasn't just Jamie who looked at her in shock. Jack, floating off the ground, stared at her in complete disbelief.

"You know," the white-haired boy said, turning to Jamie, "that is a very good question."

"I've no idea," Jamie somehow managed to stammer.

Tara grinned, as if a little triumphantly: "Thanks, kid. All I needed to hear."

The door shut.

* * *

"You little _twerp_! Get BACK HERE!"

Claude and Caleb watched, laughing, as they collapsed onto the ground, just as Tara tackled Jamie into the snow.

"I didn't throw it! I swear I didn't!" Jamie was laughing uncontrollably, clutching at his sides as the pink-haired girl held up a fistful of snow.

"You dare _lie_ to me?" she demanded, but her mouth twitched upwards at the corners. "How dare you, Jamie Bennett! You shall pay dearly for this!"

And the next moment he let out a sharp yell, because she'd dumped snow all down his shirt, and she was racing away, skidding behind Cupcake, who was chuckling.

"Hey, princess, do we have any more ammo?" Tara asked her, and Cupcake gestured at the ground.

"Jack always makes lots."

"Jack?" A funny look appeared on Tara's face – "You mean that winter spirit Guardian thing that Jamie never shuts up about?"

Cupcake nodded.

"Well. Sure, I guess."

"GET 'EM!" A voice yelled suddenly, and then snowballs were being pelted from all sides –

"Man the fort!" Tara screeched, and she and Pippa and Cupcake were all shoving snow in the boys' and in Hayley's faces: "We will come out alive!"

* * *

"I never knew your sister was so crazy," Claude said, later, to Hayley, watching as Cupcake tried to teach the older girl how to build a snowman. "I mean, she's always just sat around reading or watching us, you know?"

"Did you have anything to do with it?" Jamie asked Jack, who was perched on his staff. The white haired boy had enjoyed the snowball fight immensely, creating ammo as he flew around the park, watching as Tara's pink hair started dripping with snow.

He shook his head. "Nothing. I swear."

"She hasn't been like this in ages," said Hayley, her voice a little soft. "I mean, even before she found out we were moving. She's been really upset this whole week, but today – " She looked at Jamie, and flashed him a brilliant smile " – whatever you did for her, or said to her, in the kitchen – thank you."

Jamie's face was bright red. "Uh, I, uhm, you're welcome."

"I made a snowman!" came a triumphant yell suddenly, and then – "Oh, man. The head's not supposed to roll off, is it?"


	3. frosty the snowman

**First of all, thanks for the reviews! I already had this on my laptop so thought I'd just post this.**

**On the other hand, not really sure if I actually will continue this story (I know, I just started on this!) It's just that I really started this on impulse, you know, and I don't have anywhere I really want to go with this. Just to let you guys know. I have a habit of deleting and ending stories abruptly when I don't want to continue it or feel that it's not going to go anywhere or just simply have_ no motivation_ to continue it at all.**

**Especially, you know, because this takes place _after_ RotG, and I don't know what to write. I _may_ start a new one that happens _during_ RotG, because, you know, I'll just have to write that, and not really think of a storyline, and I only really write because it relaxes me. So, yep. Just to let those (few) people who read, or might be reading this, know. **

**Hope you enjoy this.**

* * *

"You look better than you have in days."

"I don't remember ever having so much fun," Tara admitted, drying off her hair as she sat in front of her laptop screen. Jerelee's face looked back out at her, the girl dressed in a tank top and shorts. "The snow's magical, and the kids are amazing."

"The kids? I knew you always loved them, deep, deep down. You just never want to admit it."

Tara grinned at her guiltily. "This bunch is really cute, though. I think one of them has a crush on Hayley. And they keep talking about these Guardian people."

"Crush on Hayley? Why am I not surprised?" Jerelee threw her head back and laughed. "That girl's too pretty for her own good." Then she frowned. "Guardian?"

"Yeah. Like, you know all those old fairytales? Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, everything. And now, you know, 'cause it's winter, they keep going on about some guy called Jack Frost."

"The winter spirit guy?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's Christmas in a while, isn't it?" said Jerelee. "Bet they'll all be talking about Santa Claus then."

"Yeah. This kid, Jamie – the one I think likes Hayley – he keeps telling me that Santa Claus is actually Russian and he prefers to be called North."

"That's kinda weird."

"I know, right. But what can I say? They really are cute."

Jerelee looked at her for a long moment.

"I think being in that town is good for you," she decided. "I mean, we miss you like crazy over here, and are all extremely jealous of you living surrounded by snow while we melt in this heat, but I haven't seen you look so happy in so long."

Tara only shrugged, the grin still on her face.

* * *

It was a while before Jack realised just how _different _Tara was around the kids.

When with her parents, in the early mornings or late at night, she was mostly quiet. A little sullen, just like how she'd been all the time before Jamie had come by her house to look for Hayley.

When alone, she tended to stare out at the things around her, at the moon in the sky, or at the snow on the ground, or the photos. She hardly ever smiled.

Some days, she would still keep to herself. She'd curl up somewhere with a mug of hot chocolate and a book, reading, or wander around Burgess with her camera. And while she didn't smile, there would, at least, be a calm, peaceful look on her face.

Late at night, when she was Skyping with her friends (all right, so maybe he _did_ fly by her window more than once accidentally-on-purpose), he would see her smile and laugh and a hint of sadness come into her eyes for her old home.

But when she was with the children, she really laughed, really smiled, and it was as if she were a whole different person. She didn't just like spending time with them – she loved them. She loved messing around in the snow and making fun of them and being a complete and total idiot around them.

He wondered if she could ever believe.

* * *

"I didn't know your sister could be fun."

Hayley glanced over Jack's shoulder, where the white-haired spirit was pointing to. "Me neither."

"She was always so serious," added in Jamie.

"Maybe you've influenced her without knowing," said Hayley, to Jack.

"Maybe it's just Jamie's natural charm."

* * *

Jack didn't often always have time to spend with Jamie. So he made the most of whatever little time he had.

Unfortunately, he was, nowadays, finding Jamie with Hayley and Tara. Not that this was particularly a bad thing – Hayley was a cute kid, and Tara was hilarious – but he felt a little left out at times, especially considering that Tara couldn't see him.

The kids all soon learnt that Tara wasn't just plain crazy. She was also good at telling stories.

He found them one evening, as the sun was sinking, seated in Tara's family's yard.

"And so the wolf roamed," he heard her telling them. "For days and nights he roamed, scorching in the hot sun, and freezing in the bitter cold at night. The village always feared that he would one day return, to wreck his revenge upon the people who had condemned him to his curse, to this evil fate." Her eyes seemed to glow, and her voice grew deep.

"He never came back."

"Why not?" Monty demanded, once they realised the story was over. "You can't just – that's not right! He should've come back and eaten them all!"

Tara grinned a little. "Sorry, kid, it doesn't work that way." Her voice grew softer: "Revenge isn't the best way out. It never is."

"It can make you feel better, though," said Jack, dropping down next to Jamie.

The boy grinned widely: "Jack!"

"Is that Frosty the Snowman?" Tara asked, interestedly.

He nearly dropped his staff: "_What_ did she call me?"

"She says she'll call you Frosty the Snowman," Hayley told him. "Since she can't see you anyway. She says 'Jack' sounds too normal."

"Now that's just cruel," said Jack. "You can tell her she just broke my heart. I am _not_ a snowman."

Hayley dutifully passed on the message.

"Isn't he supposed to be ice all over, or something? You know, heart of ice? Maybe he could go stick himself back in the freezer. Or maybe some glue would work."

"If she's trying to be funny, she sucks at it."

This time it was Jamie who passed on the message.

Tara didn't really believe in this Jack Frost guy, but the kids definitely believed in him (seriously, though? They were all eleven. But then again, she'd always believed in weird stuff at eleven. And at twelve, and thirteen.). And it seemed to amuse them, whenever they had these conversations. It hadn't been the first time they claimed this Jack Frost figure dropped into their conversations, and it most certainly wasn't the first she'd gotten into an argument with this so-called Jack Frost person.

"Me? Trying to be funny?" Her eyes went wide. "But I was just trying to be, you know, factual. Or something. Shouldn't it work?"

"Oh, ha, ha," Jack grumbled. "You can tell her her hair looks like those kind of stupid frosting they put on cakes in the bakery."

"Tell him not to be stupid," Tara said, immediately, once this had been passed to her. "They don't use this kind of pink."

"Tell her she looks like a deranged fairy. Or a witch."

Cupcake, Pippa and Monty were trying to control their laughter. Claude and Caleb had already given up – they had burst into loud, infectious laughter, and Jamie had difficulty passing the message, clutching at his stomach, giggling.

"I think I'd make a cool witch. Maybe I could get a black dress and a pointy hat. I can't be a fairy, the dress would probably clash with my hair."

"Tell her that's why I said _deranged_."

"You can tell him at least I'm not the one with white hair," Tara said, promptly, after figuring out the message through Hayley's giggles. "You guys said he has white hair, right?"

"TARA! HAYLEY!"

The two girls looked up, sharply.

"Looks like it's time for dinner," Tara said, sighing, clambering to her feet. "Okay, kids, playtime's over. Scram."

* * *

"You really like it over there, don't you?"

Tara chuckled, sinking into the seat in front of her laptop, Jerelee peering back out at her. "Yeah. But I don't know what's gonna happen once I get to school. I mean, I'm having fun _now_, with kids. But school's gonna be entirely different."

"You'll make it through."

"I hope so."

"What's on your mind?" Jerelee asked, because she could see something was bugging the dark girl. "Did something happen?"

Tara smiled, tiredly. "No, it's just – I wish, you know, I could be a kid again, sometimes. I don't want to get out into the world, and deal with all that crap. Today they were talking about that Jack Frost guy, again, and the way they talked, you'd think he really was there. I apparently had a conversation with him through the kids, because you can only see or hear him if you believe in him. Don't know how Jamie and Hayley managed to think up so much weird shit to throw back at me during my 'conversation' with Frosty the Snowman."

"At least you know you're good with kids. Maybe you could be a teacher, next time."

"Yeah, right. No patience, remember? Not responsible enough."

"You never know. Besides, we all have to grow up. Sucks, but it's life." Jerelee made a face. "Go hang around those kids some more, though. And let me Skype them one day! I wanna talk to American kids. So cute."

Tara laughed: "Yeah, and maybe I'll get Jack Frost to have a conversation with you, too."

* * *

One day, Tara found herself sprawled on the snow with Cupcake, watching as Jamie tried to show Hayley how to ride the sled.

"He likes her a lot," observed Cupcake.

"Huh?" Tara was focussed on forming a snowball in her hands, wondering if she had the strength to get it to reach Claude.

"Your sister," Cupcake said. "He likes her a lot. Jamie, I mean."

"Well, that's nice," she said absently. And then – "Wait, what?"

"Monty, too."

"Oh, good Lord." Tara made a face. "My sister's, what, six years younger than me and already has two admirers? I'm distraught. My heart's broken."

Cupcake laughed. "You're kinda funny, when you're not, you know, on the side."

"Thank you. I pride myself on being hilarious. Wanted to be a comedian once, you know."

"Really."

"Nope."

Taking careful aim, Tara gathered her strength and hurled the snowball at Claude.

It hit him right in the back, and she fell over, laughing, as he whirled around, spluttering, trying to spot the culprit. She could honestly not remember having this much fun in what felt like forever – Delia and Sally and Alice and Jerelee were always fun to be with, sure, but theirs had been different conversations with different kinds of humour – being with these kids was _different_.

"Tara!" he yelled, and bent down, scooping up snow: "I'm gonna get you for that!"

"You gotta actually get the snow to _hit_ me, first!"

Tara was very good at dodging snowballs. The kids had no idea how, considering the fact that she'd never seen snow before she moved to Burgess, but she was amazing at it – darting here and there, trying to evade, as she put it, 'murder by soft white fluffy stuff'.

(She didn't like to tell them that her entire PE class at home had only ever wanted to play dodgeball, and she was usually the last one standing thanks to her ability to jump around the balls coming her way. Plus, she wasn't so bad at catching them, either.)

For a moment, Tara wondered if winter spirits like Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun, as he apparently was, really did exist. It had been so long since she'd left herself believe, or wish, in anything like that – the world didn't work that way, she knew, the world was logical and scientific and mechanical and _real _– but she wondered, at times like this, if he did exist.

For a moment, with the laughter of the children in her ears, with the feel of snow under her and the sun in the sky that wasn't burning too brightly and the happiness coursing through her, she thought she could believe that he really did exist.

"This is war!" Caleb declared, and in the next moment there was snow being pelted from all sides, and in the middle of it all, a laughing, pink-haired girl.

She spun around just as Caleb launched another snowball at her, laughing as she tried to duck it –

And then she froze.

Behind Cupcake was a tall, skinny boy in a blue hoodie and brown trousers. He had snowy white hair that stuck up, and the pair of brightest blue eyes that she had ever seen,

He was also perched at the top of a long wooden staff.

He was laughing, cheering on with the rest of the kids – and then he noticed her, and where she was looking at, and his eyes grew wide.

He abruptly dropped down from the staff.

"Can you – can you see me?"

* * *

Jack was in shock.

She was looking at him, right at him, her mouth slowly dropping open.

She could – she could see him?

But that was impossible. He had few enough believers as it was – even the other Guardians had said that almost no teenager ever believed in them – and he'd seen her around, serious, brooding, sullen –

But he'd also seen her have fun, and plenty of it.

"Tara?" Hayley called, hesitantly, seeing her older sister frozen. "Are you okay?"

Jamie caught on much faster: "You can see Jack!"

Numbly, she stared at the white-haired boy, who moved forward cautiously, grinning nervously: "I don't bite, you know."

She didn't answer.

She turned and ran.


	4. they don't die on you

**Decided it doesn't matter how many people actually choose to favourite, or follow this, or whatever. It's fun to write, and as long as I can still write it and someone wants to read it, I'm good. **

**(Realised Tara isn't very well-developed, you know, so I will be working on that now. And also on Jack Frost, because I was initially so scared to write about him as a character because how does anyone write such an amazing character like Jack Frost? But I'm gonna try and do my best.)**

* * *

It was late at night when Jack found Tara, on the swing set in her yard, rocking back and forth, dressed in a plain shirt and long pants. She always was wearing oversized shirts.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked, as he landed, gently, on the snow behind her. She stiffened, but she didn't turn around, or run away.

"I'm good."

She had a cap pulled over her bright pink hair, as she tilted her head back and looked up at the moon.

Jack scratched the back of his head. He didn't know what to do – was he supposed to sit down next to her, or stay behind her? He didn't _have_ teenage believers. Especially teenage believers unwilling to believe. In fact, he was still kind of getting used to even having believers.

"Um, can I sit down?"

"I didn't expect you to be the kind to ask. You know, considering if those conversations we had through the kids was actually you."

He grinned, slightly, as he swung himself over and dropped down next to her. "They were real, actually. I _do_ think you do look like a deranged fairy."

"Aren't fairies supposed to be all pretty and small and pixie-like?" She finally turned her face to look at him, and gave him a small smile. It was the first time he'd ever really seen her smile, properly, directly at him.

(Well, of course it is, you idiot, he told himself. She's never seen you before today.)

He waved a hand dismissively. "Details."

There was silence, for a while.

"Is it weird?" he asked her, finally. "You know – that I'm real?"

She shifted on the swing set, as if gathering her thoughts.

"Yeah," she admitted. "It is. I mean, I didn't actually know much about you – we don't have a lot of stories about Jack Frost back home, you know – but I've heard the name before. It's just, I guess, when I began really growing up, it was difficult to still keep believing."

"Why?"

She shifted around some more.

"I mean, the world isn't supposed to work that way, you know?" she said, finally. "I had to focus on my studies and get into a good school and get good grades so I could get into a good university, and yada yada yada. It didn't make sense to believe in that kind of stuff anymore. And, I mean, Christmas and Easter wasn't very big for me, where I came from. So it never really mattered. And it was so difficult to believe that you guys exist when, you know, I always had to focus on making sure I got somewhere in life. There wasn't – there wasn't the _time_."

Jack didn't know what to say, for a very long time.

"You believe now," he said, feebly.

She laughed, softly. "Yeah. Guess I do."

"I didn't think you'd actually believe in me," Jack said, swinging his leg up so it was resting on the swing set. Absent mindedly, he started to swing the seat, making it go back and forth. "Still kinda hard to get used to having believers."

"Me neither. Guess it was lucky you were standing where you were, today. It's great, you know. Feeling like a little kid again." Tara smiled, to herself, in the darkness.

Jack chuckled. "Well, princess, you've been acting like one for days."

"Hey, do _not _call me princess."

"You call me Frosty the Snowman."

"But that makes sense!"

"Fine. I'll call you the deranged fairy." He grinned at her in the darkness, watching her face turn indignant.

"Why you – "

"Tara! Come in! You'll freeze out there!"

Jack saw her face change abruptly; annoyed, and shut off, and closed up.

"Not cold!" was the sharp bark back.

"Tara, come on, it's nearly midnight." A door opened, and light spilled out. "You are going in, young lady, and you are going straight to bed."

"Ma – "

"Tara, do as your mother says."

Jack watched as her face darkened, as she pushed up her spectacles and muttered a low "Goodbye", before sloping back into the house.

* * *

When Tara awoke, the barest hint of sunlight was filtering through the windows. The house was silent and still. It was quiet, peaceful.

She couldn't stand it. Where was the noise? The traffic, the endless traffic that she would always hear, the cars racing past on the roads below, at all sorts of ridiculous hours?

She threw on a hoodie, a pair of jeans, found her spectacles and a hair tie and tumbled out of the house, leaving a scrawled note on the kitchen table.

Burgess was quiet, as she walked through its silent streets. Almost no cars, and even fewer people. Back home, she thought, she'd never have been able to do this. Walk in near-silence. There were always cars, everywhere, and people, and noise. It was eerie, but now, out of the house – she supposed it wasn't that bad.

She kind of liked it.

She shoved her hands in her pockets and continued walking.

It was easy, just to walk, and drown herself in her thoughts. To think of yesterday's revelation – that Jack Frost actually _existed_. It could have been a dream – except that it wasn't. She knew that it wasn't. It had been too real, him appearing there in front of her, talking to her. And apparently, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and the Bogeyman all existed too, floating around somewhere.

_Jack Frost_. She mused over it. A winter spirit, a real character right out from the old myths and legends that she loved. Actually _existed_.

It was like something out of a fairytale.

She remembered the way he suddenly appeared yesterday, just when she thought that he might truly be real. She remembered racing home, locking herself in her room, trying to process that there was indeed a winter spirit called Jack Frost _who fucking existed_. And then she remembered walking around the house, aimlessly, before walking round and round and round in the yard, finally sinking onto the swing set.

And then she could remember how he'd simply appeared out of nowhere. How he'd ended up sitting next to her, and when she turned to look at him, how her heart had started to pound furiously, thumping inside her chest, when she looked at him and he was smiling at her –

_Stop it. You're not about to fall for some immortal dead guy you don't even know, just because he's cute and kind of funny and hilarious and good with kids_.

She could see his blue eyes, glinting, and his grin –

_Shut up, Tara._

* * *

"Well, you're up early."

She didn't have to look up to know who was walking along the top of the thin wooden fence beside her.

"Hi, Frosty."

"You know, I think it's really unfair that you get to call me Frosty while I've got nothing to call you at all."

"You could always call me by my name."

"Where's the fun in that?" he grinned down at her, that mop of bright pink hair still walking steadily beside him.

"There isn't meant to be, you moron," she told him.

"Think you just broke my heart there a little."

"Didn't we have a conversation like this before?"

"Probably," he agreed. "Don't you ever come up with anything original?"

"Hey, don't mock me, Snowflake. I think I'm doing okay."

"Snowflake?" Jack echoed, but the grin was still clear on his face. "Now that's one I haven't heard before."

"Wonderful. Do I win a prize?"

"Greedy, aren't we?"

"Nonsense. But a prize is always good."

She looked up at him then, and he saw a smile spread across her face.

For some reason, Tara felt her heart rate speed up dramatically when she saw him grinning down at her –

_No. Fuck no, Tara._

"So," Jack asked, casually, still balancing along the fence, "are those flowers in your room fake, or something?"

She stopped short at that, and her eyes widened as she glanced up at him: "Are you _stalking_ me?"

There was no doubt about it – her heart was thumping quickly, rapidly, speeding up as he slowed down and leapt onto the ground in front of her, leaning against his staff.

_Stupid overly-attractive winter spirit with that stupid smirk – _

"I've flown by your window a couple of times," he corrected. "There's this bunch of roses on your desk, or something. They're always there."

"Yeah," she said, turning to walk back along the pavement and _away_ from those goddamn eyes and that cheeky grin that was making her stupid heart go wild. "My friends got them for me, when I left home for here." Something was caught in her throat, now, and she could see them there again in front of her, KP and Luke and Jerelee and Alice and Sally and Delia and Belle – "And the board with all the notes and the pictures and everything."

"But why are the flowers fake?" Jack asked.

Tara shrugged. "I don't like real flowers."

"Why not?" He sounded confused. "I thought all girls like real flowers. Supposed to be more romantic, or everlasting, or something."

"They didn't mean it romantically," said Tara, automatically – and it was true; Luke and KP were like older brothers to her, Luke with his patiently listening to her whining all day long and KP with his constant tutoring and his jokes. "They just know that I don't like real flowers."

"But why?"

She kicked at the snow on the ground.

"Fake flowers don't die on you."

* * *

"Oh, Jamie Bennett, _you asked for it_!"

Jack sat on the swing seat next to Tara, who was watching her younger sister chase Jamie around the park, screaming her head off as the brown-haired boy laughed, scrambling through the snow.

"She's so happy," he heard her say, softly.

Jack looked over at her, but her eyes were fixed on the two younger kids, where Hayley had finally tackled Jamie. "Hayley?"

"Yeah." She nodded, never taking her eyes off them. "Back home, you know, she didn't really have that many friends. I mean, she _had_ friends, but not real friends, you know? She'd get them over for birthday parties and all that, but it wasn't a very deep kind of a friendship. But she's so happy with Jamie."

There was a strange note in her voice.

"You're not happy, princess?"

"No, I am. I'm happy for her. I just kind of miss my friends."

"Well, if it helps," Jack said, "I'm your friend. Even though, you know, you only actually knew I existed last night."

Tara finally turned to face him then, a faint smile on her face.

"Thanks, Frosty."

* * *

**(special thanks to Miriel Tolkien for the lovely reviews and stuffs hahaha)**


	5. little moments and shadows

**Hey! Well, this seems to be my favourite story to write right now, so despite the few favs, few follows and few reviews, here it is again haha. This is really more like a filler chapter - was playing with the relationship between Tara and Jack - but hope you enjoy it!**

**Also, thanks for reviewing to:**

**-Kitsune to Tenshi-chan**

** .7**

**-Miriel Tolkien**

**-xXJuuLXx**

**-Shiori Kudo (also, since you asked how to pronounce Jerelee's name, I'll try it here. It's really my friend's name which I've stolen haha. Um, _Je_ is kind of like, you know, the 'ja' in 'jam'? _Re _is like the kind of 'er' sound in 'misery', except with an 'r' in front. And _Lee _is just, well, 'lee'. Hope that's kind of clear? Haha)**

* * *

"What are you doing?"

Jack floated down behind Tara, who was at the park, squatting in the snow, holding up the heavy black camera that he'd seen her lug around a few times before.

"Taking photos for friends." She didn't even glance up at him as she focussed on Jamie – she snapped a shot just as he got hit with a snowball, laughing, and she grinned in triumph, lowering the camera.

"You like taking photos a lot," Jack commented.

"It's better than throwing snowballs at people all the time."

"Oh, c'mon, princess. Snowball fights are fun!"

"Not when they're happening _all_ the time."

She rose to her feet, brushing some snow off her jeans.

"Hey, you seem to be having fun whenever there's a snowball fight going on," said Jack, trailing behind her as she continued deeper into the park. "Didn't you instigate a couple of them yourself?"

"Didn't know you knew a big word like 'instigate'."

"You're changing the topic, princess."

"I told you not to call me that."

"Which is why I'm still doing it."

He grinned at her, easily, and Tara felt her heart race again. It just _wasn't fair_, the way this stupid white-haired immortal made her heart beat so fast –

_No_. He was an idiot, she knew he was – he just liked to mess around and have fun, even if he was somewhat responsible, being a Guardian and whatever nonsense it was. She was just being ridiculous, that was all. He was just a _little _attractive.

Just a little.

"Go away, Snowflake."

(She was lying to herself. She didn't really want him to go away. But she was so afraid of something stupid coming out of her mouth if he continued to hang around her.)

"But you're so fun to annoy."

"Now that one I've heard before."

"And you're such a joy to be around," said Jack, grinning. "You lift my whole mood whenever you smile and laugh, especially when you're in a mood like this."

She couldn't help it – she laughed.

"Knew I could make you feel better," he said, triumphantly, as he followed her further into the park, stopping whenever she did, to take a photo.

"Yeah? And how'd you guess I was in a bad mood?"

"Told you. That charming smile on your face must've done it."

"Very flattering."

"Well, I try."

She didn't answer at that, but he could see a smile twitch across her face.

"So," he asked, "why are you in a bad mood?"

Tara didn't answer for so long that Jack thought, at first, that she hadn't heard him. Then he thought that maybe she was choosing to ignore him (as she sometimes did, whenever he said something she couldn't find a response to).

"Just my friend Delia," she muttered, finally, so low that Jack had to crane his neck to hear her; but she jumped further away when he did so, and raised her voice slightly. "Was talking to her and my other friend, Alice, from back home. Delia's boyfriend just came back from overseas. You should've heard the way she went on and on and on about him. She was so happy."

He waited, wondering where this was going.

"And Alice has some Starbucks barista at her usual place making eyes at her," Tara said. "She says they're going out in a couple of days, dinner, movie, the works." She paused again. "I don't know. I just feel lonely, I guess."

"No one ever made eyes at you before?" Jack asked, moving around swiftly so he was in front of her, raising his eyebrows and then batting his eyes, making her laugh.

"Oh, screw off," she said, good-naturedly, and he was pleased to see that the smile wasn't slipping from her face.

He'd grown to like spending time with the girl, over the past week or so. She either didn't say much, or she said a lot; she could go from sullen and silent to loud and laughing in an instant. Jack had learnt that she was useless at cooking or really at doing many basic household chores, and that she didn't like pranks at the expense of others, and that she liked swings and trees and the blue sky and she didn't like animals. She could be nice, when she wanted to be; and often, this came with being blunt and honest and straightforward and crude, though he'd noticed she'd tended to cover things up a little when it came to the Jamie and Hayley and the other kids.

"Seriously, though," Jack said. "You're upset because of that?"

"I know," said Tara. "It's stupid." For a moment she wondered at the ridiculousness and incredulity of it all, the fact that she was talking to a boy she'd only just really gotten to know, who wasn't even really a boy, about her lonely and non-existent love life. "You don't wanna hear me whine. It's just a kind of sucky feeling, you know."

Jack tilted his head, thoughtfully. "I don't know," he admitted, honestly. "I mean, it's not something I've ever actually thought about, the past three hundred years. The only friend I ever really had was Wind. You don't really have a chance to think about a love life when you don't mix around with the other spirits much, and humans don't see you."

"Why don't you?" Tara asked, not wanting to talk about her own feelings on the matter anymore – it was embarrassing, far too embarrassing. "Mix around with the other spirits, I mean?"

"They all had their own stuff to do," Jack shrugged. Then he grinned. "Plus, most of them thought I was pretty annoying."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, I wonder however they ever got such an absurd idea."

"I know, right?" he said. "What could possibly have gotten that into their heads?"

"Sweetest, most charming boy I've ever met," Tara agreed.

"You flatter me."

"Don't worry. I don't mean a word of it."

* * *

"Are you going to get them presents for Christmas?" Jack nodded to the kids, emerging through the tall trunks of trees as they shrieked and laughed in their play.

"I don't know," she said. "I've never done anything for Christmas before. It was just another day in the year."

Jack stared at her, eyes wide. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

Tara shrugged, feeling ridiculously self-conscious and slightly embarrassed. "I'm not. It really wasn't a big deal. I mean, you guys might be Guardians at all, but not everyone everywhere has believed in you before. Heck, Easter was non existent for me, and I only heard about the Sandman when I was like, twelve. And, uh, I don't know what to get for them. I'm no good with presents."

"Sure you can be," said Jack, wondering how on earth anyone could have grown up not celebrating Easter, or Christmas, or believing in the Sandman - and then he realised: of course it was possible. Every place had a different culture, every community different beliefs. "Anyone can be good with presents. What would you get Hayley?"

"I don't know," said Tara. "That weird stuffed toy, I guess, I can't remember what it's called. She's wanted it for ages."

"See? That's not so hard. What about Jamie?"

"Um, a book on mythical creatures?" Tara suggested. At Jack's encouraging grin, she went on: "Maybe I could get Pippa another scarf. Or a shirt, I don't know. And I could get Cupcake one of those unicorn toys, and I could just get those robot toy things for Claude and for Caleb, right? Maybe I'll get a book for Monty?"

"See," Jack said. "That wasn't so hard."

"It's also a ridiculous amount of money." Tara's face dropped.

"You could make something for them."

"Yeah, right. You don't want to trust me with something like that."

"We could ask North for help. He wouldn't mind."

"What, Santa Claus?"

"Yeah!" Jack was suddenly leaping from tree to tree like an excited kid, grinning widely. "You'll love him."

"And how am I supposed to meet him, exactly?" Tara's eyebrows were raised, challenging.

Jack shrugged, and dropped down onto a low branch in front of her. "I'll take you to the North Pole."

"Yeah? You can do that?" Her voice was amused.

At that, he frowned a little. "Okay," he conceded. "I might have to check on that. But if you can come, would you?"

"Go to the freezing, bitterly cold North Pole, for millions of tiny elves to swarm me and for yetis to try and chase me out?" Tara rolled her eyes, but he could see her not-so-hidden smile, stretched across her face. "Sounds like a brilliant plan."

"I thought so, too," said Jack, cheerfully.

* * *

She felt comfortable with Jack in a way that she didn't feel comfortable with most people.

Maybe it was because he was just another lonely teenager that could only really spend his time around kids, like her. He didn't have anything to gain from a friendship with her, he didn't have an obligation to spend time with her – he could, quite literally, fly off whenever he wanted or choose to spend his time with Jamie and the others instead – but he still did. And he caught on to her personality very quickly, and it didn't turn him away, but seemed to amuse him instead.

Her heart had stopped beating so rapidly whenever he grinned at her, and for that she was grateful.

She was sitting on the ground in the snow at the park, watching Hayley and Jamie and Claude and Caleb and Pippa and Cupcake and Monty mess around. She liked them, she really did – Claude and Caleb were hilarious, and Pippa was pretty but didn't seem to know it, Cupcake was a nice kid, kind and sweet and good, and Monty made her feel even more overprotective of him than she did with Hayley.

"Why aren't you with them?"

Jack dropped down by her, his face questioning, inquisitive.

"I'm exhausted," she said.

"Well, now, that won't do."

"I'm not an immortal winter spirit. I have my limits."

"You sound like an old woman."

"Maybe I'm secretly an eighty-year-old woman trapped inside a seventeen-year-old body."

"That's lame, even from you."

"Oh, shut it, Frost," she said.

"Well, someone's in a bad mood today."

"You're not even close. You can ask Hayley, you don't want to see me in a bad mood."

She turned to face him then, and she suddenly realised that he was sitting very close to her, blue eyes bright, his grin wide, and to her extreme annoyance she was suddenly even more aware of the snow on the ground around her and the cold wind rushing through her hair and her heart thumping in her chest –

_Stupid Jack Frost with his stupid smile_.

* * *

_There was darkness, darkness all around her - _

_But it wasn't just darkness, it was shadows, dark, evil shadows, cruel and twisted and wanting to hurt her, harm her -_

_And they were dragging her, surrounding her - _

_She was being sucked in, absorbed, and she couldn't scream or move and she was alone, painfully, painfully alone -_

_And the only thing that existed was the darkness, surrounding her, absorbing her, pulling her in, cruelly and painfully and wanting to make her frightened and suffered - _

Hayley shot awake, clutching at her blankets, biting back the scream and the fear that had risen in her. A whimper died down in her throat as she drew in a breath haggardly, trying to keep her breathing even.

For a long while she sat on her bed, panting, gripping the sheets so tightly that her knuckles went white. She was shivering, she knew, cold and shivering and she was so, _so _frightened.

She pulled her blankets around herself.

_It was just a dream_, she told herself. _That's all. Only a dream. Nothing more_.

But still the icy, dark feeling enveloped her, not wanting to let her go.

Quietly, hastily, she turned on the lamp that stood at her bedside table, an old Winnie the Pooh nightlight kind of thing that she'd never had the heart to throw away. Soft, yellow-white line shone out, chasing away shadows, and Hayley edged nearer to it, feeling her heart rate slow down, feeling just a little warmer, the sense of cruelty and evil slipping away slowly.

In the darkness, a pair of cold, cruel eyes shone bright yellow.

* * *

**Ohoho...is that someone lurking out there in the darkness, sending out...nightmares? **


	6. ninety nine percent

Hayley didn't come out the next morning.

"D'you think something's wrong with her?" Monty asked, worriedly, at the park, when Jamie showed up without the girl and with no explanation. "Maybe she's sick? Or something?"

"We could go and check," said Cupcake, in her deep, hoarse voice.

"I thought maybe she came here without me," Jamie said, glancing around at the park. He was worried, definitely worried now – Hayley _always _came. Without fail. And what was worse, Tara wasn't here either.

"C'mon, Jamie." Pippa placed a hand on his shoulder, and he sent her a smile. "Let's go check on her."

"Wait," said Claude. "We're going to their house?"

Caleb chuckled. "I think Claude likes Tara," he said to the others.

Pippa's jaw dropped. Monty stared at him, eyes wide. Cupcake had to hold back a laugh. And Jamie had to stop his face from twitching into a grin as the pink-haired, dark-skinned girl flashed into his mind.

"I do _not_!"

"You do too," said Caleb. "You _totally_ like Tara."

"I think she's a bit old for you," said Pippa, good-naturedly.

"Yeah, about six years older," Jamie grinned.

"Shut up, guys," said Claude. His face was undeniably red. "You're not helping."

"So you _do _like Tara!"

"Aren't we supposed to go and check on Hayley?" he said, hurriedly. "What if she's really sick?"

At that, Jamie's entire face changed, and without another word, he hurried out of the park.

* * *

"I made you some hot chocolate."

Tara stood in the doorway, looking over worriedly at her younger sister, still curled up on her bed, shivering.

"Thanks," Hayley muttered, and Tara moved over, perching herself on the bed next to her. She looked pale and drawn, and she was shuddering in her blanket, dark shadows under her usually clear eyes.

"Drink up," Tara commanded. "I'm not leaving until you do."

Slowly, carefully, Hayley raised the mug to her lips, and swallowed down bit by bit of the warm, comforting chocolate.

"Nightmares?" the older girl asked, gently, as Hayley passed her back the mug, and she placed it on the bedside table.

Hayley nodded.

"How bad?"

"They were terrible," Hayley whispered. "I mean, you know I don't usually get so affected by nightmares. But this was – this was horrible. There was darkness, and shadows, and they were grabbing me and dragging me sucking me in – "

"Hey," Tara murmured, in a low voice. "Hey. It's okay."

Hayley curled up in her blankets even more.

Just then, the doorbell rang, loud and shrill, throughout the house, followed by a hammering at the door.

"I think I know who that is," said Tara, rising to her feet. She sent Hayley a wry smile. "I'm about ninety-nine percent sure Jamie has a crush on you, you know."

"What? Jamie?" But Hayley's cheeks were flushed pink, the smallest of smiles on her face, before she forced it down. "Don't be stupid!"

"I see things," Tara told her, and with a laugh she left the room, taking the stairs down two at a time.

* * *

"Tara, did something happen to Hayley?"

"Is she sick?"

"Is she okay?"

"What happened to her?"

"Slow down, kids." Tara leaned against the doorway, eyeing the crowd of children at her door. Jamie was at the front, looking especially worried, with Monty right behind him. "Hayley just didn't feel so good this morning. Nightmares." Turning around, she called out, "Come on in, I'll show you to her room."

When she heard no footsteps behind her, she turned around, frowning slightly.

The six kids were all still standing in the doorway, looking at her with a horrified expression on their faces.

"Did you say _nightmares_?" Jamie asked, his eyes wide.

"Um, yeah. Is something wrong?"

The next thing Tara knew, Jamie had rushed past her up the stairs, stumbling through the only open doorway that was Hayley's room.

"It's not possible," Cupcake was saying, as the rest of them entered the house, shutting the door behind them. "We just defeated him more than a year ago. Didn't they say that he took that long to get enough power again since the Dark Ages?"

"But nightmares that keep you to your room?" asked Caleb. "How bad can nightmares get?"

"Maybe we should tell Jack," Pippa said.

"Wait, hold up." Tara cut in front of them, blocking their way up into the house. "What are you kids _talking _about?"

They exchanged a look, and then Pippa finally looked up at her, her eyes dark.

"The Boogieman."

* * *

"You're messing with me," Tara said, once she'd sent Monty, Pippa and Caleb up to Hayley's room with more mugs of hot chocolate. Cupcake and Claude had elected to stay with her downstairs. Cupcake, she could understand – while Cupcake was closer to Hayley in age, Tara had always gotten along better with the girl than Hayley had. Tara wasn't so sure why Claude stayed with them, on the other hand. "The Boogieman?"

Cupcake nodded, darkly. "He sends out Nightmares so that we can't sleep at night," she said. "So that all we feel is fear and so that we're all scared."

"It was really bad," said Claude, and he shivered slightly, even in the warm house; sometimes he could still remember the nightmares that made him shoot up in his bed at night, twitching. "Pitch Black isn't a joke."

"Pitch Black," Tara repeated. "But how come only Hayley's getting the nightmares, then, and you kids are all okay?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to let us know that he's back," said Cupcake, bringing the hot chocolate to her lips once more. "We did defeat him the last time."

"But this is ridiculous." Tara frowned. "It could just be a bad dream."

"A bad dream that makes her feel unwell enough not to get up from bed?" Cupcake challenged.

"She's not exactly the strongest person I know."

"But have her nightmares ever been this bad?"

A long pause.

"No," Tara admitted. "But I still think it's kind of stupid. If it's really the Boogieman, she can't be the only one. Maybe she just watched some horror movie last night, or something, I don't know."

"He'd want to make us suffer more," Claude said, suddenly. "Pitch, I mean. He'd want to give us nightmares since we helped the Guardians defeat him the last time."

"And he _didn't _send you all nasty dreams." Tara sipped at her hot chocolate. "Hayley will be _fine_. You'll see. She'll be out of bed in no time."

* * *

Cold, calculating yellow eyes glinted.

"Well, there's a girl who's certainly assured of herself," a cold, hollow voice whispered. "But then again – she isn't, is she? Acting so sure of herself, so sullen and moody, so happy around the children…but she really isn't, is she? So scared, so afraid of everything – "

A low chuckle.

"And such a connection to Jack Frost," the voice continued. "And a teenager, as well! Oh, my…"

The darkness seemed to grow.

"I wonder, now…" the voice said thoughtfully, with the slightest hint of malicious glee. "Oh, yes, I wonder…"

* * *

Hayley was, to say the least, embarrassed when Jamie came racing into her room.

She let out a yelp and dragged her blankets up to her chin.

"What are you _doing_?"

He looked slightly uncomfortable when he realised he'd just raced into her room.

"Um," he said, scratching the back of his head, "Tara said you had nightmares. And you weren't so good. And I, uh, came to check on you, because, uh, I know how bad nightmares can get. But, uh, I can go now, if you want – "

"No," Hayley said, quickly. "No. It's fine." She took a deep breath, and looked over at Jamie, who was still standing uncomfortably by the doorway. _I'm about ninety-nine percent sure Jamie has a crush on you, you know._

No. Tara was just being annoying and stupid, like how she got sometimes.

"Can you stay?" Hayley asked, quietly.

"Of course I can." Jamie looked slightly stricken, and dragged one of the beanbags near the window over to the bed, where he dropped down on it. He looked up at her. "Tara – Tara said you had nightmares?"

"Yeah." Hayley shut her eyes, and shivered again. Even with her old lamp on, the minute she'd started falling asleep, the darkness seemed to surround her again, to pull her in even deeper than before. "Sorry, it's stupid, I don't even know why I'm still in bed – "

"Were they really bad?" Jamie asked, and he was looking up at Hayley with those big brown eyes and _goddammit why was Jamie so damn nice?_

"Yeah." Her hand tightened around the edge of the bed. "There was – there was darkness, and it was bad, Jamie, it was so, so bad – "

"Hey," Jamie said, and he grabbed her hand and smiled up at her, in that comforting smile that he always gave. "It's just a bad dream. Just a nightmare."

"Yeah," Hayley murmured, as the sound of footsteps thudded outside her doorway, and Monty, Pippa and Caleb stuck their heads in. "Just a nightmare."

* * *

"What do you mean, you don't want her to spend so much time with them?"

Night was falling around the house, darkness creeping up on the sky above. Outside, the light was fading, the sun long gone. It was peaceful, and quiet.

Inside the house was a different matter entirely.

"Tara." Sarah sighed, and placed a hand on the chair in front of her. Across the kitchen, her eldest daughter was staring at her, eyes narrowed. "I know you mean well. But I really don't think spending so much time with those kids is in Hayley's best interests – "

"Yeah? And who's determining her best interests? You?"

Sarah's eyes grew sharp. "I am your mother – "

"So what? What's that supposed to mean? You spend all your time in your bloody office! You don't know the first thing about Hayley or what she needs!"

Tara's face was flushed, her pink hair coming out of its ponytail as she slammed a plastic plate down on the table. "You think that you know us just because you're our mother?" she demanded. "You don't know anything about us! Hell, you still insist on making cheese and toast for her! While the gesture is appreciated, don't you even know that your youngest daughter hates cheese?"

"Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady – "

"What, so I can let you dictate who Hayley spends her time with? Jamie Bennett is a good kid, and he's probably the only reason that she's so happy with this move!"

"And I suppose he's also the reason she stayed sick at home today!"

"Oh, you think that spending time with Jamie caused her to spend the day in bed? For God's sake, he came over to make sure she was okay! The kid wouldn't leave until I kicked him out!"

"Your sister can't afford to spend all her time playing. You know she's not as smart as you, she has to start studying soon – "

"It's the fucking holidays!" Tara shrieked. "We just moved here, goddammit, and you want her to start spending her days indoors, studying? Are you just trying to come up with excuses to keep her inside the house or something?"

"Don't you swear in front of me! I'm trying to look out for Hayley's best interests! She needs to start studying – "

"Hell, we've seen the books, we're perfectly capable of doing the damn subjects!"

"Don't talk to me like that!"

"What, like this? Hell, are you even just trying to come up with excuses so Hayley's locked inside the house, without any fucking friends, or something? You think she's Rapunzel in her fucking tower or something? What is wrong with her going out to play?"

"I don't even know this boy or any of his friends!"

"You didn't care before this! You've always trusted my judgement on her friends, and Jamie Bennett, as I've probably told you a million times before, is a good kid!"

"Well, I'm starting to have doubts about your judgement, miss! You think you're seventeen, you can act as if you own this place, as if you don't have to listen to us anymore?"

"I'm not even acting like – hell, I _do _listen to you! When you actually make sense! Have you considered it's maybe just _you_ not even trying to listen to _us_?"

Tara didn't wait for a reply. She spun around and walked out into the hallway.

"And where do you think you're going?" Sarah shrieked, following the girl out.

"Away from this goddamn house!"

The door swung open, darkness pouring in, and slammed shut in Sarah's face.


	7. the frozen lake

**Thinking I should write more Jack-Tara interaction stuff. And, you know, her interaction with the kids. And maybe I should finally write something with Tara and Sophie. Hmm. Wonder how that'll go. **

**To write more fluffy interactions and stuff or actually go somewhere with this story (like with Pitch, etc.)? Decisions, decisions...**

**(that's actually a hint for your views and opinions haha thank youu hope you enjoy this chapter)**

* * *

Tara didn't know where she was going.

All she knew was that she was staying out of that house for as long as possible.

She kicked at the snow at the ground, ignoring the darkness that was falling around her. Her dad would probably be livid once he realised that she'd literally walked out of the house, without her phone, as night fell.

She didn't care. She kept her head down, and kept walking, and walking, and walking. Away. Away from everything.

"Kind of late to be out on your own, isn't it?"

She didn't have to look up to know who it was.

"Would you stop flying about like some white-haired parody of Peter Pan?" she snapped.

Jack raised his eyebrows, dropped down so he was walking next to her, his staff across his shoulders. "White-haired parody of Peter Pan?"

"Yes."

"Peter Pan, I get. Why parody?"

"He's supposed to be an immortal kid, isn't he? You're technically grown up, in Peter Pan terms."

"Hmm." Jack considered it. "You have a fair point."

Tara didn't say anything to that, just continued tramping through the snow, muttering angrily under her breath and kicking at the ground. It was then that Jack realised what she was wearing.

"You're wearing a tank top."

"Thank you, Snowflake, I realised that."

"What are you doing out here, at night, in only a tank top and jeans?" Jack demanded. "You'll freeze!"

"I've made it this far, haven't I?"

Tara, her eyes still focussed on the ground in front of her, did not suddenly expect something warm and soft to be pushed into her arms.

As she scrambled to catch it before it fell to the ground, she realised it was a light blue hoodie, patterned with delicate swirls of frost.

She turned to face Jack, who was now clad in a plain black shirt. "I can't – "

"Wear it," he said, sharply. "Or you'll freeze."

"You can't – "

"It's either that, or I'm flying you back to your house."

Tara glared at Jack. Jack glared at Tara.

Without another word, she dragged the hoodie over her head and her tank top, the soft material decidedly warm on her cool skin. She shoved her hands into the pockets, suddenly grateful to Jack for lending it. She hadn't realised how cold she was.

She thought she detected her heart pounding just a little faster.

_Stupid winter spirit. _

"You wanna talk about it?" Jack asked, after a moment of silence as they tramped along the pavement. He swung his staff about absent-mindedly.

"What if I say no?"

"Well, you're snappy. I assume you really want to talk about it, but you don't want to burden me with your whining."

"Someone seems sure of my reaction."

"Must be from spending too much time with you. Next thing you know, I'll be the Guardian of Boredom and not the Guardian of Fun."

Her hand shot out and she punched him in the arm, hard.

"Ow!" He rubbed at where she'd hit him, and then grinned slightly. "Well, glad to see you're not _that_ depressed."

"Oh, very funny, Frosty."

They walked in silence for a while more. Tara thought about how this silence was simply so _comfortable_.

"So," Jack said. "_Do _you wanna talk about it?"

"And bore you with my sorrows?"

"Well, it can't be that boring if you're out roaming the streets at nearly nine at night."

Tara grimaced.

Jack noticed her face, noticed how she still kicked at the ground and tramped her way through the snow, instead of scuffing along in her Converse shoes the way she always did.

An idea flashed into his mind.

"Hey, come on, princess. I wanna show you something."

* * *

Tara flat-out refused to fly, so Jack led her through the park and the endless trees instead.

"Are you trying to drag me deep into the forest so you can kill me?" Tara grumbled, struggling through the snow and at the branches getting caught in her hair.

"Now what on earth would I do with a dead body?" Jack asked. "And besides, it's your fault. You wouldn't let me fly you."

"There's no way I'm trusting you to carry me, much less carry me into the sky."

"Please. You'd be perfectly safe with me."

"Somehow, I doubt that."

"You need to have a little more faith," said Jack. "Okay, wait." He darted around behind her, and clamped his hands over her eyes.

"Jack Frost, what the fuck are you – "

"Trust me! I'll tell you where to go."

"Jack – "

"Aw, c'mon, Tara!"

The girl stood there stubbornly for a minute, before crossing her arms. "Fine."

"Okay, walk a bit in front – turn to the left – a bit more – okay, okay, do you feel that tree? Now just go around it – "

And so it continued, with Tara interrupting every so often with a swear word or two, promising Jack that she would shove his staff up where the sun didn't shine if something happened to her. Jack only laughed and prodded her along.

Finally he stopped.

"Okay, we're here."

He removed his hands.

Tara's eyes widened.

In front of her was a frozen lake, gleaming white and silver in the light of the moon. All around the banks, the soft, white snow glimmered, sparkling in the soft moonlight, and on the frozen lake itself, the ice glinted, shining. It was magical. Mystical. A place of magic and wonder and light, right smack in the middle of Burgess.

"Oh," she said, softly. "It's beautiful."

Jack smiled, pleased with himself.

It had been a shock when he'd flown over the streets of Burgess and seen Tara's pink head of hair making its way through the dark roads. He hadn't even stopped to think – he'd dived down instantly, trailing behind her. And a good thing, too. The girl would've frozen to death.

He realised, then, just how close he was to her – so close that he could smell her shampoo. He sniffed. It wasn't a very flowery, or a very sweet smell, not a particularly girly smell, but it was a _good_ smell. Not chocolate, but maybe just as good as chocolate.

_Shut up_, his brain told him.

He watched her as she sank into the snow, her eyes still fixed on the frozen lake. He dropped himself down next to her.

"So," he said. "You okay?"

She laughed lightly, leaned back on her hands. "Think you just made my mood," she admitted.

"Well, if I made your mood, think you could tell me what's bothering you?" asked Jack. "I mean, you shouldn't bottle yourself up."

He waited for her answer.

He didn't expect her next question.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

Jack blinked: "What?"

"Why are you so nice to me?" Tara repeated. "I mean, I'm not particularly nice to you. And you don't have to do all this, you know, like following me when I'm on my own and Hayley's playing with Jamie and Pippa and stuff, or lending me your hoodie and making sure I'm okay, or showing me this place – "

She fell silent, and in the moonlight, he watched her shrug her shoulders, slightly uncomfortable.

"I mean," she said, uncertainly, "nobody's really been this nice to me. You know?"

"Um." Jack didn't know what to say. What _was _he supposed to say? He didn't really know why he was doing this. It just felt – natural. Like it was something he should be doing, and something he liked doing. Plus, it was good to talk to someone who believed in him. She wasn't as young as the kids, and she wasn't another spirit. She was just – a girl. A girl his age, a girl he liked to talk to.

Tara didn't say anything, waiting for his response.

"I guess I just like talking to you," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I mean – you are kind of fun to annoy, princess." He watched as a faint grin flickered across her face. "And – I don't know. I mean, isn't that the point of having a friend? You know, someone that's there for you and stuff?"

A pause, and then a light punch. "I told you not to call me princess."

"Well, I did say you are fun to annoy."

They sat there in silence for a while, until Tara flopped back onto the ground, burying her pink hair in the snowy ground. Jack followed her lead, bringing up his hands so they formed a pillow under his head.

"I argued with my mum," she said, finally.

"About what?"

"Hayley."

"Hayley?"

"Yeah." She was drawing patterns in the snow now; gentle, swirling patterns that hardly touched the tip of the snow. "It was really bad. I mean, she keeps trying to make decisions for us, and what she thinks is best for us, and sometimes they're the stupidest decisions – but she doesn't actually know us, you know? She doesn't have the slightest clue on how we work. So I – I got mad. Said lots of things I probably shouldn't have said."

"Let me guess," said Jack. "You swore a lot, too."

"Five points to Frosty the Snowman." She chuckled.

"I just get sick of it, you know?" Tara sighed. "I mean, she just wants Hayley to stay inside. She doesn't want her to spend so much time with Jamie and the others. Which is, you know, completely ridiculous. And she keeps insisting that she knows what's best for us, because she's our mum, but she doesn't know fuck about us."

"She _is _your mum."

"I know. I just don't think that should be her logic for anything. Because it doesn't make sense. Yeah, you give birth to us and raise us and everything, and I'm grateful for that. But that doesn't mean she understands us, you know?"

"I know," Jack said. "I got into a lot of arguments with my mum, too."

"You?"

"Yeah." Jack stared at the moon in the sky above him, glowing in the darkness. "With my dad, too. Sometimes we'd argue over the stupidest things."

"You ever argue about your sister?"

Tara's eyes were fixed on the moon, same as Jack's.

"Sometimes," he said. "We didn't always agree about what to do with Emma."

"Emma," she repeated. "That's a nice name."

Jack smiled, faintly. "I mean, it's just that – everyone argues, you know? The real thing is about making up. Because they do want to do what's best. But so do you. It's just, you know, a matter of opinion. You guys just have to - to put out both your feelings. Without yelling at each other. Let each other know what you think. Listen to them, and make them listen to you. And figure something out."

Tara let out a sigh, and he saw her lift up a handful of snow before letting it drop back onto the ground.

"Since when were you so wise?" she asked.

He turned his head and grinned at her. "They don't call me Old Man Winter for nothing."

She turned her head to face him too, and smiled.

* * *

Later that night, Jack walked her back home. Before they turned into the street, she paused and placed her hands at the bottom of the hoodie. "You should take this back."

"No, it's fine." Jack was floating in the air, balancing on his staff, and he shrugged his shoulders. "If you're worried about your parents, they probably won't see it, because, you know, it's mine. And I don't really need it. I was just more comfortable with it."

"It's _yours _– "

"And I'm loaning it to you," Jack said, firmly. "Keep it. Return it to me whenever I'm back in town."

"Won't you be around tomorrow?"

_Dammit, Tara. You sound like some idiotic, lovesick girl_.

Jack shrugged. "Have to go and spread snow and fun and blizzards in other places, you know. Plus I've got to help North with Christmas and stuff. The guy has the whole year to prepare, but there's always stuff to do."

"All the more reason you should take back your hoodie – "

"Shut up and keep it, princess. I'll be back for it."

He grinned at her.

"Come on, we gotta get to your door."

He trailed behind her as they walked down the street, the lights in Tara's household still on.

She paused at the gate. "They're going to kill me."

"Hey." Jack turned her so that she was looking right at him. "They're just parents. They just mean well. You guys just gotta come to a compromise, or something. If Jamie Bennett can take down Pitch Black and his army of Nightmares, you can definitely face down your mum."

"And my dad," she reminded him.

"And your dad."

She sighed, glanced over at the yellow light spilling out from the windows, and then she turned back and smiled at him again. "Thanks, Jack."

Her heart was definitely beating abnormally fast. What was it called? Heart palpitations? If she didn't move away soon, she'd probably die of a heart attack from stupid Jack Frost and his insistence on lending her his hoodie and the way he was looking at her right now.

But at the same time she felt a lot more relaxed around him. Warmer. More complete. Whole.

"My pleasure, princess."

"Oh, screw off, Snowflake."

"Your wish is my command." And he saluted her, once, before grinning and motioning for her to go inside the house.

Tara took a deep breath, pushed open the gate and stepped through the front door.

Jack glanced down, once, at the mane of dark pink hair tumbling over his hoodie, glasses glinting in the light that spilled out of the household.

He took off, unaware of the stupid smile slowly spreading over his face.


	8. late nights and new mornings

**Hey! **

**First of all, thank you to the lovely people who reviewed: rats xp, Miriel Tolkien, Frosty2002, xXJuuLXx, and extraterrestial (even though I actually don't know what you're referring to when you say illogical and stupid and horrible hahaha). **

**Thank you especially to rats xp, Miriel Tolkien and Frosty2002 for your ideas!**

**Reviews and follows would be hugely appreciated and everything! And thank you so much, like really wow i love you guys who love this story haha**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter, by the way! It's more of a filler chapter, and I was trying to mess around a bit with Hayley and Jamie, oh well. Don't worry, there WILL be Tara-Jack stuff happening next chapter.**

**Probably.**

**Maybe. **

* * *

The laptop screen shone brightly in the darkness, a bright pinprick of light.

Tara was curled up on her chair in front of the laptop, her pink hair a mess, her hands running over the soft hoodie pulled over her arms.

"Wait, wait, let me get this straight," Jerelee was saying. While in Tara's home, the velvety darkness of the night sky seeped into the room, bright yellow sunshine poured into Jerelee's bedroom, illuminating the walls of the room behind her. "You argued with your mum, stormed out of the house in the middle of the night, had a sudden revelation and then came back and made up with your parents?"

Tara could hear the scepticism in her voice. She tugged at the hoodie sleeves.

She'd told Jerelee what had happened that night. Well, most of what had happened. When she finally walked into the house, wearing the hoodie that no one could see, Sarah had first worried about her wearing nothing but a tank top out in the dark of the night in winter; and, once reassured that Tara was _not _frozen, had been about to launch into a lecture until Tara had taken a deep breath and stuttered out something before her mother could start.

It had been lucky that her dad had been there.

They'd stayed up talking late into the night, uncomfortable truths coming out and with plenty of fidgeting and twitching on Tara's part. Sarah had sat in her chair uncomfortably, finally listening to what her eldest daughter had to say; and Tara, in her turn, had twisted and tugged at her hair while her mother poured out her own worries.

They'd come to a compromise, of sorts.

Tara had immediately come up to her room and Skyped Jerelee. It had been instinctive, an immediate reaction. Whenever she was having problems, whenever something happened – she'd call up Jerelee.

And so now here she was, sitting in front of the laptop screen, wondering if she should tell Jerelee the truth, crazy as it sounded. She'd never lied to Jerelee before. She'd always told Jerelee _everything_.

A half-truth, then, maybe.

"Not exactly," she said, finally.

Jerelee launched onto that immediately: "What d'you mean, not exactly?"

Nervously, Tara tucked a strand of pink hair behind her ear. "I mean, well, there was someone with me tonight. Who kind of talked to me. And stuff."

Jerelee looked at her for a long moment.

And then a smile spread across her face: "Not a _guy_!"

Her voice was an excited squeal.

"Don't you dare tell the others!" Tara said, fiercely, shooting up from her seat. And then she settled back in, still tugging at the hoodie. "He's kind of – he's Jamie's friend, really, he sort of plays with them and looks after them and stuff – "

"Like _you_!" There was no doubt about it, Jerelee was definitely excited. "Oh, god, this is _so _cute! Did you guys bond over the kids, or something? You have _got_ to show me a photo – "

"No!" Tara's heart was pounding furiously, before she fought to slow it down. "Oh my god, no. He doesn't let me take any photos, or anything. And – nothing happened. He just talked to me and stuff, and – I mean – yeah."

Jerelee only gave her a long look, a smile spreading over her face.

"Okay, okay," she said. "I won't say _anything_. Not even to you. Just let me know when you're official, okay?"

"Lee! I didn't Skype you to – "

"Oh, look, it's lunchtime," said Jerelee cheerfully. "Go and be happy, Tara! Let me know about the new guy soon!"

She ended the call abruptly.

Tara stared at the screen for a long moment, before shaking her head and grinning to herself.

"No chance," she muttered to herself, as she clambered over to her bed; but there still remained a half-smile on her face. "No chance."

* * *

That night, glittering black sand spun its way into houses, into the bedrooms of young children fast asleep in their beds.

In one house, it swirled, thickening, around a young, slim girl asleep with a hat pulled over her head. In the house opposite, it swarmed around a small, pale blond boy. In yet another house it surrounded a pair of dark twins, one in a red hat and one in an oversized shirt; in another house, it crept into the dreams of a young girl whose room was decorated in pink and with unicorns. In the Bennett household, it made itself known to a young boy with messy brown hair curled up in his bed, and in the house next to it, it invaded the dreams of a pretty young Asian girl with a Winnie the Pooh nightlight.

Quietly, slithering along the wind, it entered the bedroom of a teenage girl with bright pink hair.

And then, quite abruptly, it stopped at the edge of the bed.

The girl lay, her hair tangled, curled up, her fingers on the soft blue hoodie that she wore –

And still the black sand stopped where it was.

It hovered there, in the cold night air, glittering and shining –

And it turned away, fleeing into the night sky, and away.

* * *

The next morning, Hayley ended up at Jamie's house, dark shadows under her eyes.

Jamie wasn't faring much better.

"Did you have nightmares, too?" Hayley asked, when she knocked on the door and found Jamie opening it, yawning, his face pale and drawn.

"Yeah." He nodded, and then shivered, stepping back to let her in. "I think – " He paused, and then gulped " – I think Pitch might be back."

Hayley's eyes widened. "_Pitch_?"

"Yeah." Jamie led her into the living room, where they flopped down onto the couch, a stack of disks on the coffee table. He looked worried – very, very worried. "I called up Pippa too. She and Monty both got really bad nightmares. And Caleb called me up, and Cupcake. I don't know what to do if Pitch is back, Hayley. You've never – you've never faced him. He's _terrifying_."

His face was so pale it was almost white, the shadows under his eyes dark, his brown eyes themselves slightly hollow. He looked completely terrified. Hayley tried to ignore the fact that something seemed to rise up in her, hot and angry, when Jamie mentioned having called up Pippa. There was no reason that Jamie shouldn't call up Pippa. After all, they were best friends. And Hayley was just - Hayley was just Jamie's neighbour. Jamie's neighbour who was sitting next to him, looking at his petrified face.

"Hey. Hey." Hayley's hand found Jamie's, her tanned hand warm and soft. "You defeated him once before, didn't you? All of you. Together. Pitch may exist, but he can only get the best of you if you let him, right?"

She tried to send him an encouraging smile, but even she shivered as she remembered her terror last night, locked in her dreams.

But her smile worked. Jamie looked up at her, and smiled back at her softly, and gently squeezed her hand.

Hayley thought she felt her heart racing furiously.

Jamie had to fight the sudden increase in his heartbeat as well.

"Thanks, Hayley," he said, and he thought that his face had to be flushed bright red.

She shrugged, and, quickly, let her hand go. "Hey. It's what friends are for, right?"

"Yeah." Jamie's hand felt empty, only feeling air where Hayley's small hand had just been. He cleared his throat, then, and said, hurriedly: "So, what movie d'you wanna watch? We've got loads, plus some old Disney movies and stuff that Sophie's got – "

"Can I see?"

"Of course you can! You're choosing!"

"Serious?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Hayley lifted the stack of movies from the table and began to sift through them, her eyes widening as they fell onto one. "Did you know," she said, turning to Jamie, "that the Hunchback of Notre Dame is on some list of Kids' Movies Inappropriate for Children?"

"I remember that one!" Jamie said. "I only watched it halfway 'cause Sophie got scared."

"Tara loves it," said Hayley. "You wanna watch it? We have time to watch more later, right?"

"Definitely," Jamie said, nodding his head vigorously. A day spent watching movies with Hayley was so worth not running around outside. Besides, he'd been spending _way _too much time outside. His mother was getting concerned.

And besides, Jack wasn't around. He'd mentioned something about having to spread snow everywhere else.

"Is Tara coming over?" he asked Hayley. Almost all at once, he felt a surge of mixed emotions. He liked spending time with Tara. He really did. But he would also really like to spend the day with just Hayley.

"I think so," Hayley said, absently, as she took out the disc and wandered over to the player: "Hey, how do you use this thing?"

* * *

"What do you mean, _you can't enter her dreams_?"

Cold yellow eyes narrowed, bright specks of light in the darkness.

And then, quite abruptly, they widened, as the dark, glittering black shadow made of sand neighed, swirling to form the figure of a horse.

"Ah," the voice said, darkness swirling, and he chuckled. "I see."

* * *

"Hey, Jamie."

"Hi, Tara."

Tara wasn't a complete idiot. She could see Jamie's face drop slightly as he opened the door for her, could see his shoulders hunch over just a bit as he glanced over to the living room, where she knew Hayley was waiting for Jamie to return.

"If you want," she said, "I could go – "

"What?" Jamie looked at her, horrified. "No!"

All at once, she felt a rush of affection for the young boy. He was so sweet, and simply so damn _nice_. She knew he wanted to spend time with Hayley. But he didn't want to turn Tara away either.

"Don't you have a sister or something?" she asked, as she stepped inside, shrugging off her jacket. She'd chosen not to wear Jack's hoodie. She suspected it would raise a lot of questions.

She bit her lip as she thought of the hoodie, carefully kept in her cupboard. _Jack_. She didn't know whether to flush from embarrassment or smile when she thought of the previous night. He'd been, in his own way, incredibly sweet.

_Stupid winter spirit. Focus, Tara!_

Jamie blinked at her in surprise. "Yeah, Sophie."

"Where is she?"

* * *

Sophie stared at the pink-haired girl sitting on the armchair in her room.

Tara stared at the blond, green-eyed girl-toddler-something sprawled on her bed.

"So," Tara said. "What do you wanna do?"


	9. totally not missing you

**Heyyy friends. First of all, thank you to all the lovely people who reviewed!**

**-JediKendalina**

**-rats xp**

**-lele**

**-TheRedtail**

**-and, of course, special thanks to Frosty2002 for the many many reviews that you left which finally inspired me to open up my half-written chapter and get this done!**

* * *

When Jamie went up to Sophie's room after he and Hayley finished _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_, he had to stop in the doorway and blink.

Large, blank white papers were strewn across the floor, crayons scattered across it, with Sophie biting her lip and drawing something in a dozen different colours. That was no surprise. Sophie did this every other day.

No, what made him stop in the doorway was the fact that Tara was sprawled across the floor as well, helping Sophie out with her drawing and talking to her.

The two girls hadn't noticed him, so Jamie stood in the doorway and watched quietly. Tara picked up a purple crayon and coloured at something Sophie had drawn.

"Yeah? You think Ariel is better than Belle or Pocahontas or Mulan?"

Sophie frowned at that. Jamie could see that she was thinking very hard.

"Mulan is better," she proclaimed, finally.

"Yeah? Why? I like Pocahontas. Actually, I like Nani best."

"Nani? From Lilo and Stitch?"

"Uh huh."

"But she's not a princess."

"So what? She's super cool. She took care of Lilo all by herself. And she can surf really well."

"Mulan saved China," Sophie reminded her.

Tara made a face. "Okay. Fine. She's cool, and she's smart. But Nani's still my favourite."

It was at that moment that Tara looked up and saw Jamie standing in the doorway. He grinned sheepishly at them, as Tara narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hayley and I were thinking of making popcorn," he said. "You guys want some?"

"Popcorn!" Sophie cheered.

"Sounds great, kid," said Tara. "You need any help?"

"Nah. I'll bring it up when we're done."

* * *

Just a few minutes later, though, Tara made her way down the stairs with Sophie, who was giggling and hopping down every step. To Jamie's amusement, Tara seemed extremely paranoid and worried about the fact that Sophie could fall down and tumble down the stairs any minute.

"You don't have to be so worried, you know," Jamie told her, once they'd finally reached the bottom, a look of relief spreading over Tara's face. "Sophie'll never fall down."

"Well, better safe than sorry," Tara said. "Anyway, sorry about crashing yours and Hayley's alone time. Sophie insisted on watching a movie too."

Jamie flushed bright red at the words '_yours and Hayley's alone time_', but he jabbed a finger towards the living room and said, "Go on and help choose a movie."

It wasn't a minute later when Jamie heard Tara return to the kitchen.

"If you _ever _tell Jack that I was talking to Sophie about Disney princesses," she said, in a low voice, "I will skin you alive and chop you into millions of little pieces so that your body is never found."

"Sounds fun," Jamie said cheerfully, and grinned brightly up at her.

* * *

Jack missed her.

It was strange, because truth be told, he hadn't even spent _that _much time with her. And it hadn't been that long since he'd said good bye to her. And he'd left Burgess for longer periods than this, and he'd never even missed _Jamie _this much.

It was, he decided, probably because of the fact that he didn't have his hoodie anymore. While he didn't really need it, it had become a familiar part of him, and travelling in his black shirt alone was a little strange.

It didn't help, of course, that the Guardians pounced on the fact that his hoodie had mysteriously gone, the minute he'd landed in North's enormous factory-palace to help out with the preparations for Christmas.

Tooth stared at him, her fairies fluttering to a stop around her as they realised just why Jack Frost looked so very different. Bunny nearly dropped the carefully-crafted toy bunny that he'd been holding up. Above Sandy's head floated a dozen different images as a dozen question marks floated around him, his face a state of confusion.

As for North, he took one look at Jack and let out a string of words in what the spirit supposed was Russian.

"What're you _wearing_, mate?" Bunny demanded, finally, shoving the toy bunny back onto the table and hopping over to inspect Jack more closely.

Jack glanced down, and then back up again. "A shirt."

"Oh, ha, ha," muttered Bunny. "Very funny."

"Jack," Tooth said, a little more patiently, a concerned look in her eyes, "what happened to your sweatshirt?"

"I had to lend it to a friend."

"A friend?" North's eyebrows rose. While he hadn't known Jack personally, exactly, for that long, the winter spirit had never been without that familiar, soft blue sweatshirt. He knew how attached Jack was to that sweatshirt.

Jack felt slightly awkward.

"Yeah," he said. "I lent it to her – "

"_Oho_!"

North straightened from where he'd been working on some miniature castle, and pointed a cookie at him.

"A girl?" he demanded.

"Yes," Jack said, uncomfortably. "She's Jamie's neighbour. A teenager. And she was walking around in a tank top, you know, and I figured it was freezing, so – "

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight." Bunny drew out a chair, sat on it, and turned so that he was facing Jack. "You lent your hoodie to a girl. A teenage girl. Who can see you?"

"Yeah," said Jack. This was starting to feel like an interrogation. "Jamie and her sister got her to believe in me. And she needed it, so – "

Sandy let out a little tinkling noise, and a massive heart formed over his head, while Tooth let out a laugh: "Oh, this is _so _adorable! Jack, you are _so _sweet!"

Jack blinked: "Wait, what? Guys, she's just my friend – "

"You say that," North announced, now tossing his half-eaten cookie into the air behind him, "but you do not feel that way, yes? You care for her!" His eyes glinted.

"North – "

"I can feel it!" North insisted. "In my belly!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. While this is all very interesting and all, and you guys are behaving a lot more immaturely than _me _for once, don't we have gifts to prepare?"

"We do," agreed Bunny. "But once this is over, mate – " his sharp green eyes found Jack, and a smirk was forming on his face " – I'd like to hear more about this girl of yours."

"She's not my girl," said Jack.

Bunny scoffed.

"Oho, Jack is sweet on this girl, yes?" North let out a booming laugh.

"Oh, this I _really _have to see, mate." Bunny was grinning.

"Guys, it's not like that – "

"Nonsense! I want to meet this special girl of yours!" North beamed at him. "She very special, yes? We invite her day after Christmas!"

Tara. Christmas. North. Something clicked in Jack's head.

"Actually," said Jack, "I wanted to ask if she could come and see the North Pole."

At this, Bunny let out a loud snigger and nearly fell off the chair, while North let out another booming laugh. Tooth was up in the air, already chattering a mile a minute, and Jack could just make out the words "so exciting" and "so sweet" and "how adorable", with the smile on her face growing larger and larger.

Sandy created half a dozen hearts around his head.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Quit it, guys. She's just a friend. And you tell _me _to grow up."

"Ah, but so sweet!" North laughed again. "No?"

"Who knew you had it in you, you show pony?" Bunny snickered again.

"Come, you tell her, must come here day after Christmas!" said North. "We prepare good meal for her, yes? We bring her through portal!"

Jack's eyes widened. "That wouldn't be such a good idea – "

"No, mate, it's a marvellous idea." Bunny grinned, a spark in his eyes.

Jack rolled his eyes again. But something that felt very much like butterflies seemed to be flying havoc in his stomach, which really was very stupid. After all, it wasn't like he felt _that _way about Tara. Nope. Not at all.

He thought of her again, her grinning at him, kicking her way along the snowy pavements, her sharp words flying off her tongue, that night by the frozen lake.

Not at all.

* * *

"Oh, Christmas is coming." The cold voice sighed, as if truly distraught over the fact that soon lights would be lit up all over the country, Christmas trees glowing and carefully-wrapped presents resting under the trees. "How _horrid_."

The dark, glistening shadow of a Nightmare let out a neigh.

"I think," the voice said, "that we'll have ourselves a little fun this Christmas, don't you think?"

A certain malice had come into the voice – cold, and hard, and cruel, as the owner thought of the thin, white-haired Guardian who had managed to defeat him.

And then he thought of the pink-haired girl who seemed to so entrance the immortal winter spirit, the girl whose dreams he couldn't touch, and he let out a harsh laugh.

"Oh, yes," he breathed, "a little fun indeed…"

* * *

Tara wasn't exactly _happy_.

It had been a couple of days since Jack had left. Five days, to be exact. _Not _that she had been counting. She had other things to do than to count the number of days Jack had left. No, she just glanced from the calendar time to time. That was all.

It was funny, how much she missed that stupid, annoyingly attractive winter spirit with his cheeky grin.

_Not _that she missed him _that _much. Not really. She was just used to him being around, that was all. And besides, she still had his hoodie. It was usually on her desk, where sometimes she would slip it on, and wear it when she went to sleep at night.

_Not _that she had to. It was just that his hoodie really was very comfortable. And the nights had gotten uncomfortably cold lately. Like there was a shadow looming over the town.

Which didn't, of course, have _anything _to do with Jack's absence. Although she would have been much more comfortable if he was around.

The thought of a shadow reminded her of something else.

Hayley had been having horrific nightmares lately. Some nights, she would wake the house screaming and shrieking – and while she went around with her usual smile, her face was paler, the shadows under her eyes darker. It was something that Tara was now noticing with the other kids as well – with Jamie, and Pippa, and Cupcake, and Monty, and Caleb and Claude.

She'd listened to their conversations about whether this meant Pitch was back. The general consensus was that he _was_. Unfortunately, none of them knew what they could do until Jack was back.

Which, of course, she _totally wasn't _looking forward to all that much. After all, he'd only be back to annoy her. And she had to return his hoodie. That was all.

She scowled at the snow on the ground.

Inside the house, she could hear her sister clearing up the dinner plates with their mother. Tara kicked at the snow, suddenly feeling restless. For some strange reason, she wished she had Jack's hoodie on. She'd left it up in her room, knowing Hayley would've seen it in an instant and would've asked her questions nonstop, _and _would've told Jamie.

Tara didn't know why she wanted to avoid that, exactly.

The restless feeling wasn't going away.

Abruptly, she got to her feet, and called through the door, pushing it ajar slightly: "I'm going for a walk."

Sarah's face appeared, concerned and worried and frowning; but then she gave a quick nod. "You've got your phone with you?"

"Yeah."

"Don't be back late, and don't wander off too far," said Sarah, and Tara nodded and dragged on her jacket and backed out of the house, stumbling through the snow and along the pavements. In the Bennetts' household, she could see the light shining through the windows, as she passed by.

She figured Jamie had to be missing Jack pretty badly too.

As she turned the corner, she wondered if maybe that little shop that sold cakes and cupcakes and all that kind of confectionary was still open. Maybe she could get some small slice of chocolate cake or something for Hayley –

Something moved swiftly behind her.

Tara whirled around, suddenly wondering why on earth she had wanted to walk alone in the streets in the dark.

Another movement, swift and fast –

It felt like her heart was pounding suddenly, hard and thumping and fast, beating in her chest at a furious rate, and she was feeling cold and clammy and she was suddenly _just so scared _–

Which was stupid. Very, very stupid, she told herself. She was in an area lit with streetlamps on either side, even if there were no houses here and all the building lights were off and she was completely alone –

Fear gripped her again, her clenching her hands into fists, as something else, a dark shadow of some sort, flew past her.

She spun around again.

And then she saw them –

Vast, towering shadows, all in the shapes of horses, made out of glittering black sand, with cold, cruel eyes, all gathering in a large mass around her –

She thought of Jamie's story, of the Nightmares that were the result of Pitch's work with messing around with the Sandman's dream sand.

And then she couldn't think, her brain wasn't working, all she knew was that she was just _so scared _and nothing was right and this was all wrong and she was just so, _so afraid – _

She ran.


	10. sticky situations

**Not the best chapter please forgive**

**I'm still trying to figure out where I'm gonna go with this story**

* * *

Hayley was at Jamie's house for a late-night movie. It had taken a lot of convincing on her mother's part, but Sarah had finally agreed to let Hayley stay over, after Tara had rolled her eyes and reminded her that Hayley and Jamie were only eleven, and that Jamie's mother was in the house as well.

Hayley wondered, for a moment, if it had been wise to come over. Tara still wasn't home yet, after all. She'd gone wandering around after dinner, and she'd left her phone behind, like she so often did.

But then Jamie beamed at her, and Hayley figured that Tara knew how to take care of herself.

Sophie was watching Hayley with her head tilted, green eyes wide, as Hayley and Jamie sifted through the tall stack of movies that he'd found in one of the cupboards.

"Um," Hayley asked, "why's your sister staring at me like that?"

She was watching Sophie almost warily, and almost unconsciously, moved slightly closer to Jamie.

She didn't notice Jamie's face flare red.

"Um." He swallowed, and then he stammered, "I don't – I don't know." He swallowed again.

Sophie finally let out a giggle, and pointed at Hayley: "You're pretty!"

Hayley flushed, a little, and glanced at Jamie - "Did your sister just call me pretty?"

Jamie didn't miss the small smile spreading over Hayley's face, as Sophie turned to him, and giggled: "Don't you think so?"

"Yeah," he said, smiling. "Yeah, she is."

And then he froze, abruptly, his hand hovering over the stack of movies as he realised what he'd just said. It was now Hayley's face which was completely red, as she swung her hair forward to hide her face.

"Um – " Jamie swallowed again. "I mean, you know, yes she did, which, um, I guess she totally believed she had reason to say, and, uh, I wouldn't know, you know – "

For some reason, Sophie let out a bright, happy laugh, and Jamie wished she was up in bed and somewhere very far away because this was turning into a complete and total _mess _–

"Um," said Hayley. "Thanks."

They sat next to each other, and Jamie didn't know what was louder - the noise from the TV or the embarrassment radiating out from the both of them.

* * *

Jack had finally finished painting some annoying-looking toy robot when Baby Tooth flew into North's palace, looking shaken and scared and chattering on a mile a minute, her wings whirring in the air.

"Baby Tooth! What's wrong?" Toothiana was up in the air in an instant, looking worried as she hovered in front of her fairy.

Baby Tooth chattered and chattered, and Jack and Bunny and Sandy and North watched as Tooth's face grew pale, their hands dropping from their work.

She turned to the other Guardians, and her eyes were glistening slightly.

"Pitch," she said, in a hoarse voice. "He's back."

"_What_?"

"Impossible!"

"No, he's back," Tooth said, firmly. "He's in Burgess right now. Baby Tooth's just been there to collect some teeth, and she saw him. She saw him and all his Nightmares."

Only one word of that sentence registered in Jack's brain.

"Burgess?" he demanded, rising up and grabbing his staff. _Jamie_, he thought. God, that was where Pitch was defeated, where Jamie lived. What if Pitch wanted revenge?

Tooth nodded, her face fearful. "He was after someone, Baby Tooth says. She says that she saw all his Nightmares, his whole army of them, chasing after some teenage girl – "

"A teenage girl?" North echoed, and there was confusion clear in his voice – a confused shared by the other Guardians. What on earth would Pitch want with a teenage girl? He thrived on fear, and it was the fear of children that he liked best –

Tooth nodded. "A teenage girl with pink hair."

Another voice echoed in Jack's head now, and somehow he felt even colder and emptier than he'd felt when he'd been afraid for Jamie.

_Tara_.

* * *

Tara couldn't remember the last time she'd run this much, and so fast.

The ground was slippery below her feet, but still she ran, never stopping, breathing heavily as she skidded through streets that she'd never seen before in her entire life. Still the black sand rose up behind her, in the shape of horrific, evil-looking horses with cruel eyes –

And then, abruptly, she almost slammed into a hard, brick wall.

_Fuck_. A dead end. She, being the stupid, ridiculous girl that she was, had let herself be cornered.

No way out.

"Well, well, well," a voice said behind her, cold and lilting and one that made her shiver, as, slowly, she turned back around to face the dark sand of horses. A lithe grey figure was riding on one, yellow eyes hard and glinting in a grey face, an amused smirk on his lips. "So this is Jack's little princess."

"You're Pitch Black," said Tara, and to her intense surprise she found that her voice wasn't shaking, that she wasn't stammering. "Aren't you?"

"Very good," Pitch said, approvingly. "It's nice to know that I'm believed in."

"You're fear," she said. "You're always there. It's just how people deal with you."

"You know, that sounds most uncouth," said Pitch. And then he smirked again, a cruel smirk. "You're a very interesting girl, Tara. My Nightmares have been trying to get into your dreams for days, you know."

"Your – _what_?"

"My Nightmares," Pitch repeated, narrowing his eyes. "And yet somehow, they could never get in."

"Good for me?" Tara asked, and she was surprised, suddenly, just how quickly her fear was fading, just how much she _wasn't _terrified of this dark figure in front of her. He was dark, he was radiating fear, and her heart was still racing; but somehow, she just wasn't so scared anymore. "Um, why not?"

Pitch Black scowled, sensing that the girl's fear was lessening. "Because," he more or less spat out, moving nearer so that his cold yellow eyes were boring into hers, "you, my dear, are afraid _of _fear. You are afraid of _being afraid_."

And then her heart started thumping again, furiously, as the Nightmares reared around her, and she felt so very alone and so very scared.

* * *

That was when the snowball struck.

"PITCH!" a voice yelled, and ice started coating the ground, creeping up the legs of the Nightmares, as a furious Jack Frost flew through the air, landing in front of Pitch Black, his face hard, his eyes cold.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Jack Frost." The smirk was back on Pitch's face once more. "What a pleasant surprise."

"How did you recover so quickly, from the last time we kicked your ass?"

"How crude, Jack. If you must know, it really wasn't very hard, considering I had all my Nightmares without me." There was a cold light in Pitch's eyes. "And, you know, your friend here is really very interesting."

"What's she matter to you?" Jack demanded.

"I'm sure you would like to know," Pitch chuckled as he took in the boy's furious gaze, something in his eyes that showed just how much he was willing to lash out at anyone who dared to harm the girl behind him. "But don't worry, Jack. I'm sure my Nightmares will entertain you and the other Guardians while you try to figure it out."

* * *

Tara couldn't keep track of what was happening around her.

She could see, vaguely, Jack in front of her, yelling, shouting, ice spreading around him –

A multi-coloured blur, wings whizzing through the air –

A small, round, golden man, long trails of golden sand swirling in the darkness –

Splotches of bright colours, boomerangs hurling back and forth, a large bunny –

A large, white-bearded man swinging two large swords –

All she was aware of was the darkness, the glittering black sand that swarmed around her, surrounding her, suffocating her –

And then everything went black, just as she could hear a familiar voice call her name, sounding frantic, worried.

_Tara_.

Why did that name sound so familiar? She thought that it meant something, that it was important to her in some way…

And there was just the darkness, and everything was so _cold_.

* * *

**Frosty2002, seriously, do you read my mind half the time because half the ideas you put out are usually ideas half-formed in my head omg HAHAHA. anyway this chapter is kind of for you because, I don't know, I mean it's not very good but it's something haha**


	11. pulling through

**Yes. Okay. I'm here. Hi. Hahaha. I thought it would be fun to start working on this again. (Really no mood to start on my history essays, you see. Urgh. I'm a terrible procrastinator.) **

**Anyway, thank you all again, for the reviews! Like xXMisatoXx, MirielTolkien, TheRedtail, 18, DoodleMaggie, and, of course, Frosty2002, and your many wonderful reviews that have been giving me more and more ideas! (Also, out of curiosity - does the '2002' refer to the year you were born, or something? Haha.)**

**Anyway. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Somewhat. Yeahhh. I dunno. I think some parts are kind of draggy, a bit. But maybe that's just me. **

* * *

When the Guardians finally managed to bring Tara back to the North Pole, the girl shivering and pulling at her jacket sleeves, Jack stationed himself by her bed and refused to leave.

He'd brought back his hoodie from where he'd found it in her room, carefully lifting her up slightly so he could slip her into it, and he was alarmed by how _light _she was. Physically, she was there – but when he moved her, it was nearly as if she were air itself, fragile and delicate and almost unnoticeable.

It was decided that she should stay at North's place to heal.

The Guardians were determined to keep watch over her, after having found her being chased down by Pitch, and without knowing the reason why, they thought it safer to have her near. They also thought it would be better for her to have the chance to recover at the North Pole. Jack wasn't very sure how they'd done it, but Sandy and North and Bunny had somehow arranged for her parents to be called away suddenly for a few days on a trip, just barely being able to say goodbye to Hayley, and asking the younger girl to tell her older sister that they were sorry they couldn't say goodbye, since she'd come home late the night before and was still asleep.

North and Sandy and Bunny and Tooth would drop in once in a while, North patting Jack's shoulder and standing behind him, Sandy letting his dreamsand wash over the girl, Bunny sitting there quietly and just _being _there, and Tooth being even more motherly than she usually was. But Jack never left. He would prop his leg up on the chair and lean against his staff, and he would watch her as she slept and as she twisted and turned on the bed in one of the many rooms in North's palace.

The very worst part was that Jack didn't fully know or understand what had happened to her. They'd all been so focussed on fighting off the Nightmares, chasing them away, that when Jack had turned to her, she'd already collapsed on the ground, shivering and shaking.

It had been remarkably a lot like the time they'd all thought Sandy had, well, died.

He'd no idea what had come over him – he only knew that rage had filled him when he'd seen her, and with a furious yell he'd swung his staff down and blasted away the Nightmares, and Pitch had disappeared.

But they all knew that it wasn't the last they'd seen of Pitch. He was cunning – he knew when to retreat. They all knew it would just be a matter of time until he came back with his Nightmares.

"She will be fine," North said, softly, as he brought in a plate of cookies a few hours later, placing it on the bedside table and stepping back behind Jack.

Jack let out a low, empty laugh: "You sure about that?"

North didn't answer. Jack hadn't expected him to.

* * *

"He does care for her a lot, doesn't he?" Tooth said, softly, as her hands flew over a stuffed toy she was helping North sew. She stood in one of the main rooms in North's workshop, the other Guardians around the table, all helping out in their own way.

"He's hardly spoken a word since we brought her in," said Bunny. "All he does is sit and stare at her."

"He cares very much, yes," agreed North. "But very dangerous. He is Guardian. She is human."

The four fell silent, for a moment; and then Sandy let out a little tinkle and he formed an image of Pitch Black, Tara, and a question mark above his head.

"Sandy's got a point," Bunny frowned. "What does Pitch want with a teenage girl?"

"Maybe he wants her as leverage," suggested Tooth. Her eyes flickered to the many rooms high above them, in one of which a sleeping girl was curled up in a bed, shivering, with a white-haired boy watching over her. "I mean – she is close to Jack, isn't she?"

"Very dangerous," North repeated, and he sighed.

* * *

Jamie watched as the dark-haired girl sat in front of her sister's laptop, trying to reassure the few people on the other side.

"I don't get it," a boy was saying on the laptop screen, a skinny, bespectacled boy with floppy dark hair. "Hayley, where's Tara? What's happened to her? Why can't she come to her laptop?"

"She's just tired, is all," Hayley said, and Jamie could hear the strain in her voice, see her hands clench into fists over the dark blue denim of her jeans. It had only been a few hours since Bunny and Tooth had dropped into his room, where Hayley had been crashed out on a spare mattress, and they'd told both eleven-year-olds how Pitch had gone after Tara and she was unconscious and they were bringing her to the Pole to let her rest and heal.

Hayley hadn't even reacted to the presence of the two Guardians she'd never seen before. She'd simply sat next to Jamie, the blood draining from her face, as the boy had instinctively, awkwardly, put his arm around her.

And here she was, in Tara's bedroom with the cold morning light pouring through the open window, and Tara's friends from the other side of the world on her laptop screen.

"From what?" the boy on the screen demanded. "I mean, she was supposed to Skype hours ago, and she didn't even drop a message to say that she was too tired, and I've sent her who-knows-how-many missed video calls, and you can't even let me see her face – "

"Luke!" a girl's voice said, forcefully, and Jamie could now see a girl pushing him aside, looking worriedly at Hayley. It was clear that this was a girl who knew Hayley well; she was looking at her like she understood what was going on, like she could see the fear on Hayley's face that was just so clear to Jamie. "Hayley, has something happened to Tara?"

Hayley threw a frantic look at Jamie, who was sitting on Tara's bed, out of sight of the laptop's webcam. He could see panic rising up in her, could see her grabbing at the fabric of her jeans, could see her start taking in deep breaths –

He made his decision, then and there.

Springing to his feet, Jamie padded over to the laptop and next to Hayley.

"Hi," he said, to the two teenagers on the laptop screen, who were now looking at him curiously. "I'm Jamie, Hayley's neighbour. I think what Hayley didn't really want to tell you is – " He glanced back at Hayley, who was now blinking very hard, as if trying to keep back her tears " – well, you see, their parents had to leave Burgess for a couple of days on a very last-minute, urgent business trip. And Tara had something of an accident on the streets last night. She's perfectly fine, she's going to recover, but Hayley just doesn't want to get her parents worried, so she's trying not to let anyone know or find out."

He wondered when he had become so brilliant at lying.

Hayley's hand slipped into his, and she squeezed his hand, gently. Jamie thought his face would flare up like a beacon.

"What kind of an accident?" the boy demanded, instantly, once having absorbed Jamie's words. "A car accident? Or something?"

"Something of that kind," Jamie said, cautiously. "She's staying with a friend of mine for a while, who can take care of her. He'll make sure she's going to be okay."

Suddenly, the teenage girl's eyes widened. "Oh," she said. "_Oh_."

"Why are you saying 'oh' like that?" the guy asked her. "Jerelee, d'you know something?"

"Well – " the girl hesitated, and then looked straight at her own laptop screen, at Jamie and Hayley: "Jamie, right? I mean, if the friend you're talking about is the one Tara mentioned to me before, I think she'll be okay."

"Tara's mentioned Jack?" Hayley spoke up, suddenly.

"Not by name," said Jerelee. "She mentioned something about a friend of _yours _– " Here she looked at Jamie " – who liked to play with you guys and looked after you all? Who was kind of always on the look-out for her and stuff like that?"

"Yeah." Jamie nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah, that's Jack."

"Who?" the boy demanded. "Who the hell is _Jack_?"

In an air-conditioned room on the other side of the world, Jerelee sighed as she heard what she thought was the slightest hint of jealousy in Luke's voice. _Really_? She thought. _You guys have been close friends for how many years, and you're only getting jealous now?_

She resisted the urge to punch him, hard. God, the guy was blind. It was only when Tara moved to the other side of the world that he'd realised just how much he cared for her.

But she said: "Relax, Luke, she'll be fine." She turned to the laptop screen, where Hayley's familiar face was pale, and a brown-haired boy stared back up at her. She thought fondly of Hayley and Tara – Tara had always, _always _looked after Hayley, and right now, it was Hayley who had to figure out a way to make things work without her around. She didn't question about Hayley wanting to keep Tara's accident, whatever it was, a secret from their parents. She knew Tara and her mother didn't get along well, and she knew just how Hayley and Tara were united as sisters, even if they hardly showed it.

She also thought that maybe Sarah and Peter didn't want to know what Tara had been doing, exactly, out on the streets late at night. It could, very possibly, have something to do with that Jack guy. After all, he _was _looking after her, wasn't he?

* * *

After another few minutes of reassurances and goodbyes, Hayley finally slid the laptop screen down –

And then, to Jamie's intense surprise, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Hey," he said, awkwardly at first, but then he wrapped his own arms around her (this was so strange – he'd never hugged any girl except Sophie before, and Pippa just once). "Hey. She'll be okay. Tara's tough."

"No, she's not," Hayley whispered into his shoulder. "She tries to act tough, but she's not, she's _not_! What's going to happen to her, Jamie? What did Pitch do to her? What does he even want with her? And I can't even be there, and I have to stay here and tell people that she's okay and I don't know what to do without her – "

"Hey," Jamie repeated, a bit more firmly this time, and he hugged her even tighter as Hayley buried her face into his shoulder. "You have me, okay? You're not alone. I'm gonna be here for you. You know that, right?"

She didn't say anything.

Jamie looked over her shoulder, just for an instant – and his eyes widened as he saw one of Tooth's fairies fluttering by the window, looking at them curiously.

"And the Guardians wouldn't just leave us here," he said, this time a bit loudly, so that the fairy would be sure to hear him: "They wouldn't leave us without any idea of what's happening to Tara. You'll see. I'm sure they'll come and get us."

He fixed the tiny tooth fairy with an almost fierce look.

The fairy nodded and zipped away, back into the wintry air.

* * *

If there was one thing that Jack couldn't really understand, it was why he couldn't drag himself away from Tara's bedside.

She was still curled up, shivering despite the blankets he'd heaped up on her, despite the fire roaring in the hearth behind him. She clutched at the bedsheets, at the blankets, at his hoodie, as she twisted and turned, letting out whimpers.

It felt like something was twisting in his chest and it was horribly, unbearably _painful_.

It was stupid. It was irrational. He didn't even know her that well. Not really. He'd spent days around her, of course he had, but it had only been a couple of _weeks_, at most.

She'd spent half her time insulting him, calling him Snowflake, calling him Frosty the Snowman, making lame jokes, ignoring him completely when she couldn't come up with a comeback quickly enough to one of his comments. She swore endlessly, incessantly, even when there was never a need for it, and his arm still hurt sometimes from where she would punch him, and there were days when she was just in a bad mood and snapped at everyone and everything.

She let out another whimper as she twisted in the bed.

And then there were the days when Tara was bright and happy and smiling, days where she would just spend talking to him, days where he would see just how much she loved her sister and how much she liked Jamie and his friends, days where she wasn't the girl who went crazy and insulted him daily and made her way behind endless smiles and laughter or a sullen face – days where he could sit with her, and talk with her, and just _understand _her.

She wasn't a very complicated person, in her own way. Jack just had a feeling she didn't know how she was supposed to be like around people.

It was always him who trailed after her, annoying her, talking to her. But he had a feeling she'd wanted him there just as much as he wanted to follow her around.

He could feel something a lot like warmth, a good kind of warmth, creep up into his hands as he thought of the days he'd spent with her, the way she would smile at him.

_Don't think like this_, he told himself, sharply. _You've never had the chance to talk to another girl properly for three hundred years. Of course you'd fall for the first girl you come across_.

But somehow, Jack didn't think it really worked that way. After all, he'd met Tooth, he'd met the spirit of Halloween and a couple of other female spirits and 'myths'.

He hadn't felt this way about a single one of them.

"C'mon, Tara," he said, in a low voice, as she let out what sounded like a sob, and the thing in his chest that was twisting seemed to hurt even more as she curled up even more. "Don't do this to me. You can get through this. You will get through this. You _have _to get through this. You're going to get better. And everything's going to be okay."

* * *

"You need to get some rest, mate."

Jack didn't look up as Bunny moved up, standing behind him.

"I'm okay, Bunny."

"No, you're not," said the Easter Bunny, bluntly. "Mate, you've been here for hours."

"I need to watch her," insisted Jack. "I can't leave her alone. I – someone needs to be here for her."

Something softened in Bunny's gaze as he saw Jack stare intently at the girl's face.

"Let me watch her for a while," Bunny offered. "North's almost done with his toys. I'll let you know the minute there's any change."

Jack finally tore his gaze from the girl then, looking up at Bunny with wide, tired blue eyes, his face exhausted. Bunny could see that his hands were gripping his staff tightly – for how long he'd been doing that, Bunny didn't know. "You'd – you'd do that?"

"Has to be better than trying to paint a stinking doll," said Bunny, and grinned at him. The faintest of smiles flickered over the winter spirit's face. "At least go get something to eat. I'll be here."

After a moment's hesitation, Jack nodded. Bunny helped him up as he struggled to his feet – just exactly how long had Frost been sitting here? – and then took Jack's place, sinking into the armchair.

"Now get out," Bunny told him. "Go. Get some food. They've got cookies and eggnog."

"You'll let me know, won't you?" Jack asked, as he stumbled over to the door, stopping to turn back. "If there's any change."

"You can count on that, mate."

Jack sent him one last, grateful smile before finally stepping out of the room, and Bunny turned his gaze to the shivering figure on the bed.

"C'mon, sheila," he said, and he remembered Jack's anger and rage in the alleyway where they'd found her, remembered his worry and panic at making sure she was okay, at bringing her to the North Pole, remembered the way his friend had been sitting, close to motionless, next to her, for hours. He glanced down at the girl, and hoped that she would wake up soon. "You gotta pull through."

* * *

**So...any comments? **


	12. in the north pole

**hello, i'm back here! thank you friends for the support (: hope you guys enjoy this chapter! heh. **

**(don't worry okay there will be more jackra fluff coming up. probably. maybe.)**

* * *

The minute Jack finished eating, he went back and chased Bunny off the chair.

The Easter Bunny had little say in the matter. Jack took up his seat again as if he had never gone away, and kept his eyes fixed on Tara's face, as if trying to imprint the image of her in his memory. He sat there throughout the night, keeping his eyes open, always on the lookout for any possible movement or sign that meant she was about to wake up.

"You have to wake up, Tara," he whispered, as he stared at her, her nearly buried in the pillow as she shook in her sleep: "You have to."

It was hours later when Tara's face finally cleared, her expression smoothening out.

Jack didn't see it – he was completely exhausted, trying to watch her for nearly a whole day without a break – and he'd finally lowered his head to stare at the floor to give his eyes a rest when a voice said, softly, weakly, a voice that sounded airy and like it could belong to the wind: "Snowflake?"

His head shot up, and Jack didn't even think –

The next thing he knew, he'd flung his arms around her, and was hugging her so tightly, not even giving her the space or the time to absorb what was happening.

"Jack?" she whispered, and Jack felt warm arms, slowly, uncertainly, encircling him.

"You scared the hell out of me!" he said, his head in her mane of pink hair. She hadn't washed it since she'd been chased by Pitch, but he could still smell faint traces of her shampoo, he could still feel her arms around him, and he just wrapped his arms around her even more tightly: "Tara, Tara – "

"Snowflake," she gasped, "Breathing. Difficult."

Immediately he removed his arms and moved backwards slightly, his face turning a dark red as he did so. Tara took in a few deep breaths of air, and then she smiled, a small smile, at him, and Jack thought he just might burst.

She was awake. She was smiling.

"You're okay," he said, finally, and somehow his hands found hers and he wouldn't let them go, and he was looking at her and into her eyes: "You're okay."

She smiled at him again, gently: "I'm okay, Snowflake."

She was so close to him – he could see her eyelashes, the brightness of her eyes as she gazed back at him –

"Tara!"

And then a girl hurled herself onto the teenager, a girl with long dark hair and who was sobbing furiously. Behind her, slowly, cautiously, came Jamie, his hands in his pockets, grinning sheepishly as he caught Jack's eye.

"Tara, I was so, _so_ afraid, ohmygod, ohmygod – "

"Hayley, I'm okay, I'm okay – "

"No, you're not, do you know how long you were out, ohmygod Tara – "

Jack, almost reluctantly, slid off the bed lightly and took a step back, to stand next to Jamie, who was looking at Hayley and Tara with a small smile on his face. Jack's hand clenched around his staff, which he'd picked up again, and he leaned against it as he watched the two sisters, Tara holding Hayley tightly, smoothing down her hair, and murmuring to her, and he thought he felt something warm in his chest.

"Ah, so our mysterious guest has finally awoken, yes?"

North was beaming as he practically bounced into the room, his sleeves pushed up as they usually were, Tooth fluttering eagerly behind him with Sandy right next to her, Bunny last of all. North was holding a huge mug of hot chocolate, which he held out as he came to a stop beside the bed.

Jack watched as Tara's eyes widened slightly, taking in the massive, beaming man in front of her, the half-hummingbird, half-human floating behind him, the small, round golden man, and the large, grey bunny at the back.

"Hardly mysterious, North," Jack said, dryly, as Hayley slid out of her sister's arms, and Jamie, almost automatically, moved up so that he was in front of her. "You know who she is."

"Oh, but we've never actually had the pleasure of meeting her yet!" said Tooth, and she immediately zipped in front of Tara excitedly, who blinked and edged backward slightly. "Hi! I'm the Tooth Fairy, but you probably guessed that and everything, you can call me Tooth!"

"Um," Tara said, who had pulled up the blankets over her legs like some kind of shield: "Hi - ?"

Suddenly she looked down at what she was wearing, and she pulled, almost as if in a trance, at the edge of Jack's hoodie.

"Um." He cleared his throat, and thought his face might be bright red as he said: "I, uh, got that back for you. Thought you might need it."

He did his best to ignore Bunny's chuckle and Tooth's giggle.

"And this is Sandman," said North, drawing back Tara's attention and looking as if he were trying very hard not to break into laughter. "Sandy."

The little golden man beamed up at her and immediately created a hat out of golden sand, which he swept off, and he bowed to her. Jack saw the smile on Tara's face grow even wider as she nodded her head in response.

"And I am North," the large man said cheerfully: "And you are here in my home, yes?" He beamed at her.

She nodded, weakly this time.

"And Bunny!" North finished, as the Easter Bunny hopped up and nodded at her, briskly.

"Gave us all a scare, there, mate," he said. "The little Frostbite wouldn't leave your bedside. You've been here for days."

"Bunny!" hissed Jack, but Tara didn't turn to him; instead, she tilted her head and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Are you – sure you're a bunny?" she asked, after a moment's hesitation. "Not a kangaroo?"

Jack couldn't help himself. He burst into laughter, shaking, as he leaned against his staff to prop himself up.

Bunny immediately pounced on him. "This was you, wasn't it?" he demanded. "You told her to say that, didn't you?"

Jack grinned at him. "I swear, I'm innocent on this one – "

"You're hardly ever innocent of anything," Tara objected.

"But I am of certain things," said Jack. "And in this particular case, I am completely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever."

"You little – "

"But are you?" Tara asked, insistently, turning to Bunny. "Are you Australian?"

"Not important!" Bunny interrupted, loudly. "All you need to know is that I'm the Easter Bunny and _not _a kangaroo. North, don't you have hot chocolate to give her or something?"

North chuckled: "Oh, yes, yes." Immediately he pressed the mug of hot chocolate into Tara's hands: "Come, you must drink! Very good hot chocolate, yes? Will feel better."

He smiled at her, and despite the tattoos and the rather fierce glint in his eyes, Tara could understand why it was comfortable to be around him.

"Thanks," she said, quietly, and raised the mug to her lips. North wasn't exaggerating – this _was _good hot chocolate. It filled her with warmth as she gulped it down, finally stopping and rubbing at her mouth embarrassedly, sure that there was a mark there.

"Tara, I know this must be disturbing for you, but we need to ask you something." Tooth's face was suddenly grave as she came to a halt in front of Tara, lowering herself so that she could look right into Tara's brown eyes, behind her spectacles. "Why did Pitch chase after you?"

Almost immediately Tara's face darkened.

"He said that his Nightmares couldn't get to me," she told them; and then she swallowed, and her voice dropped. "He said that it was because I was afraid of fear. Because I was afraid of being afraid."

Jack dropped onto the bed next to her, took her hands in his own cold ones. She didn't seem to notice.

"That's the bravest fear I've ever heard of," he said.

Without warning, she drew her hands back and pushed herself away, hugging the blankets around herself. "No," she snapped, and Jack nearly stumbled back as he saw her eyes staring at him, glaring at him. "No, it isn't. Do you think it's brave, to be afraid of feeling fear? Do you think that's bravery? It's not! It's the most cowardly thing I've ever heard of. To be afraid to feel fear – that's cowardly. It's disgusting. It's like I'm trying to hide myself away because I don't want to have a chance to feel scared. You think I think that it's brave to be afraid of fear?"

Jack suddenly felt a cold, empty feeling in his stomach. "Tara – "

"He called me your little princess," she said, flatly, and Jack saw how her face was dull, how her eyes were fixed on him and no one else. "Pitch."

Something twisted in his chest.

"Tara – "

"Jack," Hayley interrupted, softly, gently. "Maybe we should let her get some sleep."

"Sleep?" Jack blinked at her, like she was crazy. Tara had been sleeping for days.

"I don't want to sleep," snapped Tara.

"I have your laptop," said Hayley, as if Tara hadn't just snapped at her. "I don't know how, but you can still get your email and everything else in this place."

Tara looked at her, and her face cleared slightly. "You – you can?"

Hayley nodded her head, eagerly. And then, as if after a moment's thought, she added: "You should Skype Luke, by the way. He was frantic when he called up the other day and you weren't answering."

"He couldn't have been," said Tara, automatically. "Luke doesn't panic about stuff like that."

"He does," said Jamie, helpfully, piping up from his spot next to Hayley. "He was nearly screaming his head off. He was totally worried about you."

Jack didn't know why, but he suddenly felt cold – very, very cold, and in a bad way.

"I'll come by later?" he said to Tara, feebly. She just nodded, briefly, as she took her laptop from Hayley, as she slid it open.

"Jack," she called, just as he was about to step through the doorway with the other Guardians, who had hurried out before him; and, hurriedly, he spun around, his eyes fixed on her.

She glanced at him, for a moment, before lowering her eyes. "Thanks for staying with me."

A smile flickered across Jack's face, and the cold, hard feeling inside him that felt so wrong seemed to diminish slightly. "You're welcome, princess."

* * *

"Is she okay?" Jamie asked Hayley, once the door had shut behind them. He could see Jack trailing after the other Guardians, clearly lost in thought, as he held his staff across his shoulders, sweeping it down every once in a while. It looked strange to see him without his hoodie. "I've never seen her like that."

Hayley glanced at Jack, once, before turning to Jamie. "She's mad," she said, simply. "If you want to know the truth, I think that she's angry because she's feeling weak."

"Weak?"

"Yeah. Because she was attacked by Pitch and she couldn't hold her own." Hayley shrugged. "Tara's always been like that. She doesn't like to feel like a damsel in distress; she wants to be her own knight in shining armour."

"But it was _Pitch_!"

"It doesn't change a thing," Hayley told him. Then she winced. "And I also think she's mad that Jack made that comment."

"About her fear being brave?" Jamie asked.

Hayley nodded. "I don't think it's something she likes to admit. It's like saying you're scared of being scared. She thinks she's a coward."

"That's not right," Jamie said, immediately. "That's not cowardly at all."

"It's not," Hayley agreed. "It's stupid. But I hope she gets over her anger soon. Jack looks like a sad lost puppy without her."

"Don't you want to be with her?" Jamie wanted to know. "She's your sister. Wouldn't she want you there if she's mad?"

"With Tara? When she's _angry_?" Hayley laughed, but to Jamie it sounded like her laugh was just a little sad. "She loves me, and I love her, but I'm no good at cheering her up. If I'm in there, we'd probably be breaking into an argument that would cause an avalanche around here. No, I think she'll Skype Luke, if she can."

"Luke?" Jamie repeated, confused. "Why him?"

"Oh, she likes talking to him," Hayley said. "She used to like him a lot, you know, but he had a girlfriend. They broke up, but that was just after she finally got over him. Now they're just good friends. And Luke can always make her laugh." A smile twisted Hayley's lips: "I think it's because of how stupid he can be, sometimes."

"You're so mean," Jamie told her, but there was a grin on his face.

Hayley just grinned back at him. "I never said I was nice," she said, happily. "I've given up on trying to understand Tara long ago, anyway. She never makes sense."

* * *

"Do you think it's brave or cowardly to be afraid of fear?"

"To be afraid of fear?"

Tara nodded, her eyes never leaving the laptop screen where Luke was looking back at her. It was clear that it was late at night, but here he was, sprawled in bed as he talked to her, holding his head up with his hands.

She felt a sudden rush of gratitude for him.

"To be afraid of fear," Luke repeated, thoughtfully, and Tara thought of Jack's words earlier, and something clenched in her chest. It wasn't that she was ungrateful to Jack for staying with her. She was – she couldn't imagine anyone else staying with her for so long, without leaving her side.

It was just that she wasn't very good at saying thank yous. And Tooth's question had only reminded her that she'd been there, she'd been lying there sleeping there for who-knew-how-long, and all because of some stupid Boogieman. Must be disturbing for her? Ha! More like embarrassing. She'd been dragged to the North Pole and been out for days, according to what the other Guardians had said. All because of a couple of Nightmares made of black sand.

And Jack's statement –

She clenched her fists.

She was grateful. She really was. To all of them, for looking after her, for wanting to make sure she was okay. And she knew that Hayley and Jamie, at the very least, must've been worried.

But she was so bad at controlling her temper.

"I think it's wise," Luke said, finally.

"Wise?"

"Wise." He nodded. "I mean, in a way it's brave, I guess, but personally I think being brave is facing down your fears no matter how scared you are. And in a way it's cowardly, because you're afraid of being scared. But I mostly think it's wise, because you don't want to let yourself feel fear because you know what it'll do to you, and you don't want that to happen to you. So you're afraid of feeling fear, because it's more of an emotion or a feeling and it's not something concrete that you can shut down, and fear is something bigger than even shadows in the dark. You know what it does, so instead of focusing on something concrete, you look at it in a bigger picture, as an abstract concept, and you know that you don't want to be drowned in that. So I think it's wise."

He paused, suddenly, and then grinned sheepishly. "Did that make sense?" Then he scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Why are you smiling at me like that? I said something stupid, didn't I?"

Tara couldn't help but smile back even more widely at him, and shook her head. "No, you didn't," she said, and she grinned: "For once." Her face softened. "I forgot how much I missed you, that's all."

* * *

**comments! would be fantastic. i love you guys. muacks. don't kill me for making tara angry at jack. **


	13. a good look for you

**hey guys! just wanted to say thank you _so _much for the reviews.**

**and, uh. i don't know. hope you like this chapter? haha**

* * *

"Jack?"

The white-haired winter spirit nearly fell off his chair at the sound of her voice, and he leapt up to balance on the edge of the back of the chair just in time. A familiar, dark girl was standing in the doorway, her bright pink hair sticking up. "Tara!"

"Yeah. Hi." She managed a smile and slid into the room where Jack had been painting some toys for North. It was, as North put it, his spare presents, and he'd roped in Jack to do it once the winter spirit had been chased out of Tara's room.

He swallowed as he remembered that.

"Look, I wanted to say sorry." Tara stopped in front of him and ducked her head, looking at her sneakers. "I mean – for earlier. I didn't mean to get mad. I just – yeah. I mean. I'm sorry. I really am."

Oh, God. She was awkward, so, _so _very awkward. She wasn't good at apologising. She wasn't good at a lot of things, actually, but one of the things at the top of that list was swallowing her pride. Hayley had always said she was too proud for her own good.

But this was _Jack_, and he had been strangely, wonderfully good to her. And he hadn't deserved the way she had treated him.

"Hey," he said, and she glanced up hesitantly to find him smiling at her gently. "It's okay, princess."

God, why was it so _hard _to be mad at her? Or to even be upset with her?

This was just complete confirmation of the fact that Jack was going soft.

Despite herself, Tara stuck out her tongue at him and punched him in the shoulder. "Don't call me _princess_."

He grinned. "Whatever you say, princess."

* * *

"JACK FROST, GET BACK HERE!"

"Isn't the point of a chase trying to run away, princess?"

"DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT – OH, YOU ARE SO GONNA GET IT, SNOWFLAKE!"

Bunny blinked as he stopped in the doorway, a figure in white streaking past him, followed by a dark girl with pink hair swearing loudly in a foreign language. Sandy was seated at the table, clapping his hands eagerly as he followed the chase, Jack laughing as he leapt from one table to the next while Tara skidded along the floor, her hair swishing over her shoulders.

"What happened, mate?" Bunny asked as he ducked his way into the room and pulled out a chair at the table Sandy was seated on.

Sandy beamed at him and created golden images in the air above his head.

"Ah." Bunny nodded. "He painted her face blue?"

Sandy let out a laugh and nodded.

There was a sudden loud crash and tumble. Bunny jumped to his feet just as he saw a pink blur smash into Jack Frost, the two of them tumbling over the ground until she was on top of him, grinning triumphantly as she pinned him down.

"_I got you_," she told him, grinning widely.

Jack wasn't really very sure why but he thought he could feel his heart pounding furiously as he looked up at her. She'd pushed her glasses back up her nose, and her hair was hanging in strands around her face, and she was so _close _to him –

"You did," he said, finally, his voice nearly cracking before he swallowed and managed a grin: "And now what are you gonna do about it?"

Her face fell at that, and she punched his shoulder, hard. Her face flushed pink, as if suddenly she realised just how close they were and how she was sitting over him.

"If you wanted to end up so close to me," Jack said, grinning, "you could have just asked."

"You're insufferable, Frost."

Her eyes flickered over to somewhere behind his head, and she grinned.

Jack's smile faltered as he saw her lift up a paintbrush dripping pink.

"Tara, you wouldn't – "

* * *

"I can't believe you painted my whole _face _pink!"

They were in one of the rooms higher up in North's palace, Jack leaning against the wall with Tara's head on his shoulder and his arm around her. He could still feel his heart pounding every time she adjusted her head slightly – but she never lifted her head up from his shoulder, and she didn't shrug his arm off her.

He wasn't very sure exactly _how _her head had ended up on his shoulder, or how his arm ended up around her. Something about her being very tired. And his arm keeping her warm.

To be honest, he didn't really care.

"You deserved it," she mumbled into his shoulder. "You painted me blue."

"Blue's a good look for you."

"You mean like your hoodie?"

"I think you look pretty good in it."

"Yeah?" she murmured, curling up closer to him. Jack thought his heart was about to explode from his chest as she tugged at the frayed ends of the shirt he was wearing. He could practically feel the heat radiating off her as she curled in even closer. "I think I do, too."

"Maybe you should keep it."

"You wouldn't be Jack Frost without it."

"Maybe, but you pull it off much better than I do."

"I've never really been one to make a fashion statement."

"You could start."

Tara just chuckled lightly and Jack's shoulder suddenly felt so very empty as she lifted her head. "Sorry. My head's probably way too heavy."

Jack managed a grin. "Nah. It's got way too much air in it."

She shoved him. "I take offence to that, Snowflake."

Jack just laughed. "You missed me while I was gone, didn't you?"

She rolled her eyes: "Oh, yeah, I totally missed you annoying me endlessly. A white-haired winter spirit following me day in and day out. Totally not stalker-ish and creepy at _all_. I missed you so much I ended up spending my days withering around being completely alone."

"You _did _miss me," Jack said, smugly. His arm came up to rest on her shoulders and, idly, he began to play with her hair. "C'mon, princess. Just admit it already."

"I am _not _admitting anything."

Tara's words caught in her throat as Jack's hands wandered to the top of her head, to along her face. She could feel his long fingers, cold and gleaming and white, trailing down the side of her face, and she was grateful for her dark skin as she felt the heat rush up to her face.

"Jack."

"Mm-hmm?"

"What are you – what are you _doing_?"

"Your hair's nice to play with."

"Your fingers are cold."

It was almost instinctive; Tara's hand moved up to catch his, dark brown fingers tangled in his long pale ones.

Jack swallowed.

"Yeah, well, spirit of winter and everything, you know?"

Tara shifted, but her hand didn't leave his as she turned to look at him.

_Shit_. She was biting her lips, and they were turning pinker and pinker and _shit _it was getting so hard to keep his eyes _away _from her lips.

"Jack?"

He swallowed again. "Yeah?"

"You feeling okay?"

Tara could feel her heart pounding furiously as she kept Jack's hand in hers, as she glanced up into his eyes. There was an unreadable expression on his face, an emotion she wasn't quite sure of, and she just _looked _at him because she could feel something fluttering in her stomach and she was so _so _confused because his eyes weren't leaving her face –

"You look kind of cute when you're confused," he murmured, and the next thing Tara knew he had pressed his lips to hers.

She didn't really think. She kissed him back.

This felt so _right_.

She was kissing him hard, her hand still caught up in his, her other hand dragging him towards her by the front of his shirt, resting on his chest. He had wrapped his other arm around her waist, and he was pulling her closer and closer as he kissed her hungrily.

He never wanted to let her go.

When they finally broke apart, they were both breathing heavily, their foreheads resting against each other, Tara's pink hair falling in strands around them like a curtain.

"Well," Jack found himself saying, "That was – that was – "

His eyes found hers, and he saw a smile flicker onto her face.

"Unexpected," she said, quietly.

He chuckled lightly. "Unexpected? Really?"

"Well, maybe not so unexpected," she admitted.

"You liked it, didn't you."

"I'm not admitting anything."

"That was kind of admitting it without really saying anything."

"You talk too much," she muttered, and this time her hand left his as she yanked him down, fiercely, by his shirt and kissed him.

It was as if Jack's hands suddenly had a life of its own. They were running through her hair, on her face, down her neck, her shoulders, before coming up to cup her face again. Tara wasn't doing much better; he could feel her hands, her fingers warm and long, as she spread her hands over his shoulders, up into his hair, pulling him down closer.

It was also Tara who broke first from the kiss, much to Jack's annoyance.

"Hey," he whined.

The smile on her face grew as she punched him, lightly. "Don't whine."

"You're not kissing me."

"Doesn't mean you should whine."

"I'll stop whining if you kiss me."

"I think that could be arranged," Tara breathed, her breath warm on his icy skin, and Jack pulled her close.

* * *

It was Sandy who eventually found them, Tara sitting with her back against the wall, Jack's head on her lap as her fingers ran through his hair, a stark contrast against the snowy white.

He was about to make his presence known when he saw Jack snake his hand up and pull her head down to kiss her.

Sandy froze.

A smile spread across his face, wide and beaming.

Quietly, he snuck back out of the room. North could always find someone else to fix up those toys he wanted Jack and Tara to do.

It seemed like the two teenagers had something _much _more important to do.


End file.
